


Crusade

by Renaerys



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Gen, Girl Saves Boy, Strong Female Characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-10
Updated: 2014-04-03
Packaged: 2018-01-04 06:07:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 36,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1077499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renaerys/pseuds/Renaerys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where knights are lost and only princesses are left take up their swords, Kairi embarks on a journey to save a boy she cannot remember. But Organization 13, using powerful Nobodies born of the other Princesses of Heart, has other plans. SoKai.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Opening Moves

  
“We travel, some of us forever,  
To seek other states,  
Other lives,  
Other souls.”

* * *

 

_He needs you._

_Wake up._

_Remember your promise!_

Kairi woke in a cold sweat, the nightmare still burning her skin as she breathed deeply to calm her nerves. Her room was dark, the curtains drawn, but outside the sun was up and the gulls were cooing. Wiping damp bangs from her forehead, she pulled back the cutains and opened the window over her bed. Salty, ocean air filtered into the room and brought the sun with it.

It was Saturday on the Destiny Islands, a day off from school with nothing to do. She was supposed to meet Selphie to go shopping later, but before that there was somewhere she needed to be. The same place she went every Saturday morning alone without fail.

The boat ride to the islet where she’d played as a child was a short one, and she could do it with her eyes closed after so many trips back and forth. She and Riku had spent their days there looking for seashells and talking of the future back when they were children. He’d always been ambitious, wanting more than they had and never satisfied with what they could achieve. A dreamer. In a way, she wished she were more like him.

How she missed him.

Just standing here on the white sand beach under the shade of the Paopu tree made her heart ache with a now-familiar nostalgia, something between longing and languishing. The sea breeze was cool and refreshing on this spring morning, but Kairi shivered and rubbed her arms for warmth. Rustling nearby drew her attention to a shady nook between the edge of an empty tree house and a gushing waterfall.

It was the secret place where kids painted the walls and told ghost stories at night. She hadn’t had the urge to go in there for the longest time. It was just a dead end, besides. Nothing of value there.

_Remember your promise._

The voice in her dream was a distant echo, unidentifiable, but she heard it here, too. Curious, Kairi followed the whim on hands and knees to that dark place full of secrets.

The damp rock walls made her shiver. It was chilly despite the warm weather. Upon the walls, drawings danced in still life. They were carved in chalk, embedded into the rock forever. She traced them with a hand, unsure what they meant or who of her friends had inscribed them. Eventually, she came upon a carving of two people exchanging what looked like crude Paopu fruits. They were smiling, and Kairi traced their smiles with gentle fingers.

 _Me_ , she thought.

She had no idea why her face would be imprinted upon the ancient walls of this secret hideaway, but there it was. That was her, smiling and accepting the fruit from another. As she ran her fingers over the carving, she felt sad. Who was he?

A burst of wind drew her attention, and she turned around. A door, not there when she’d first arrived, had materialized. Odd—she’d never seen a door here before.

_That’s not true._

Somewhere in her memory she could picture a door, bright and terrifying. It was a gateway to all her hopes and fears, but she couldn’t remember going through it—though she’d wanted to. Something wasn’t right, and she felt sick to her stomach.

_“Don’t be afraid.”_

“Who’s there?” Kairi said, standing and putting up a hand in front of herself. It was the same voice from her dream, distant and near all at once.

_“Open the door. You can do it.”_

Kairi stared at the door, wondering. It was so familiar, like she’d been here before. Approaching it, she touched a hand to the cool, wooden surface. Light, warm and bright, bloomed under her touch. Blinding. Kairi cried out, unable to keep her eyes focused under the sheer brightness. Her body felt weightless, floating, like she was dreaming.

And then there was nothing.

* * *

 

_"Wake up."_

Kairi turned in her sleep, willing herself to awaken. Fluorescent lights blinded her from above and her body ached all over.

"Oh, there you are," a feminine voice said.

Kairi squinted to see through the light and tried to sit up. "What... Where am I?"

Slowly, the world began to adjust around her. There were no shadows, only stark white nothingness.

"Who are you?" Kairi asked, focusing on the figure looming over her.

The figure smiled softly. "I'm Naminé," she said, lending Kairi a hand to stand.

Kairi let her pull her up. "What is this place?"

Naminé's smile faltered. "This is a place in-between. We're neither here nor there."

Kairi studied the girl. Naminé shared her height. Her blonde hair fell about her in wisps, pretty, as though there were an invisible wind following her. But her eyes bespoke a sadness that weighed her down.

"You're here because you're needed," Naminé went on, shaking her former discomfort.

"Needed for what? And how do you know—"

_My name?_

There were fortunetellers on the Islands, people who claimed to have the foresight of gods. Kairi had sometimes visited them, enjoying the opportunity of someone else telling her future than to have to wait and see what it held for herself. But with Naminé, she felt like even the words of fortune were unnecessary. There was something so sentimental about her that words seemed almost offensive.

"There's a lot I know about you, and you about me," Naminé said, eyes downcast. "But in any case, we don't have much time. I need your help."

Kairi wasn't sure what was happening, but she suspected it had to do with the turmoil Riku had been caught up in recently with Kingdom Hearts. She'd been waiting for him to return for so long.

A splitting pain pierced her head, and she raised a hand to apply pressure to her temples. The headaches came and went when she thought about Riku and the events of the previous year, but they had never been this bad.

"They're painful, aren't they? The memories," Naminé said. "The more it hurts, the better it heals."

"What do you mean?" Kairi gritted her teeth, tried to will away the pain.

Naminé showed Kairi her back. "Just that you won't be like this forever. What goes up must come down. He'll come back to you, too. Like gravity."

"Riku?"

Naminé laughed lightly, but it wasn't happy. "I've really made such a mess of things, haven't I?"

"Naminé..."

"I know this is all strange for you," Naminé continued, turning to face Kairi once more. "But you'll understand soon enough. There's something I need you to do. If you want to help the ones you love, then you must do it."

"What?"

Kairi remembered a journey, a dark quest to restore peace and harmony in which Riku had been lost to her. And something else, something just out of reach.

"There's a part of your memory that's missing," Naminé said. "The part that makes your heart beat. Without it, you're just breathing fumes."

"Does this have to do with the Heartless?"

"Yes and no. You see, I'm trying to help someone. He's lost so much, and I have to give it all back to him. But I don't have enough power. If we don't do something soon, his heart will return to darkness again."

"But what can I do? And why does it have to be me?"

Naminé smiled. "I need your power. You're one of the pure ones, a Princess of Heart. You saved him from darkness once, but to do it again we'll need something more permanent. Only then will the powers of darkness yield."

"I don't understand," Kairi said, taking a step toward Naminé. "Who is 'he'?"

"Someone very dear to you, but you don't yet know it. I need the power of everlasting light to ensure his heart will never collapse again. Otherwise, his memories will overpower and destroy him. Will you help me?"

Kairi didn't know what to say. Here was a girl, unknown, telling her to put her life on the line for a boy she didn't know. There were so many questions that Kairi didn’t quite know where to start.

A loud pounding sound suddenly reverberated throughout the white room, causing both Kairi and Naminé to lose their balance. Kairi fell on one knee and covered her ears with her hands to shut out the ringing in her head.

"What was that?"

Naminé took Kairi's shoulders, her eyes misted with fear. "You have to leave, now! They're coming!"

"Who's coming?"

"Listen, only you can help me save him. Look in your heart, and you'll find the strength to fight." Naminé touched her hand to the place above Kairi's heart, and a light bloomed beneath her fingertips.

The pounding grew louder, and Kairi grew weaker.

"They're almost here!" Naminé said, pulling away. She waved her hand and summoned a dark vortex. "Go now!"

Kairi stumbled toward the darkness, her skin growing cold as black tendrils curled around her. "But what about you?"

Naminé smiled sadly. "I'm still needed. They can't hurt me."

Kairi reached a hand out to the other girl, her fear mirroring Naminé's. Neither of them believed that lie.

"Find Merlin. He'll know what to do," Naminé said, reaching for Kairi.

Shadows danced from her fingertips, and just when it looked like she would reach Kairi, the black light propelled Kairi backward into oblivion.

"Naminé!"

But she was gone.

* * *

 

" _Now who's the lazy bum, huh Kairi? You can't sleep at a time like this."_

Kairi groaned, her body aching all over. It took some effort to prop herself up into a sitting position against the stone column behind her.

"I'm not sleeping," she said.

Looking around, she saw no one. Another dream, then. Rubbing her eyes, she pulled herself up and took in her surroundings. Instead of sand underfoot, there was cobblestone. Gone was the gentle sound of waves, replaced with the mechanical clicking and turning of gears. Towers of metal and stone loomed above, connected by floating platforms that hovered like magic. She knew this place.

"Hollow Bastion.”

Naminé must have sent her here through a dark corridor like she'd seen the Heartless use. But Kairi felt fine; she could still detect the beat of her heart. The journey hadn't affected her. Dusting herself off and taking a deep breath, she walked to the entrance of the alley in which she'd landed onto a broad street. Shops lined the sides, their lights bright and welcoming, but there wasn't a soul around.

She meandered down the street, trying to remember the lay of the land. Things looked very different from when she'd lived here as a child, back when it was called Radiant Garden and the darkness had not yet overwhelmed it, and she didn't know quite where she was going. Something caught her eye, but when she turned to look there was nothing among the stone columns and street shops. Only shadows.

Shadows that danced just out of her line of sight. Left, right, everywhere at once. They shifted and grew into menacing shapes, humanoid but not human. She was surrounded.

"Heartless," Kairi said, turning around and looking for an escape. There was none. "What do I do?"

The Shadows cooed and clicked, teetering on awkward feet as they approached. The nearest one let its mouth hang open as it caught her scent. Drool dripped to the ground through rows of tiny, razor-sharp teeth. There was no one to help, no one to save her. She was alone.

" _Look in your heart, and you'll find the strength to fight."_

Kairi backed away from the approaching Heartless, a hand over her heart as she searched around for something she could use to defend herself. A weapon.

_I need a weapon!_

White energy burst forth from her chest and swirled around her in bright beams, a cyclone of light and warmth. Movement escaped her as the energy consumed her, and for one terrifying moment she could not breathe. Just when she thought she might fall, the light dissipated and she could feel the sturdy stone beneath her feet again.

And in her hand, the unfamiliar weight of a keyblade.

"Huh?"

The blade shone with a golden hue, its crown of flowers shimmering under the light of the sun. The Shadows drew nearer. One shrieked and lunged itself at her, sharp teeth bared and gnashing. Kairi gasped and swung her keyblade in defense. Its flowering crown struck the Heartless, cleaving it in half.

The sound of tempered steel slicing flesh was blood-curdling. The Shadow's black hide ripped under the force of her blade, giving way to muscle and bone. The crown of her keyblade was stuck fast, embedded among crushed bone matter and sticky ligaments. The stench of rotting flesh assaulted her with almost tangible force, making her eyes water. It was as if the Heartless were decomposing at high speed beneath her fingertips.

Kairi stared, wide-eyed, at what she'd done. The remains of the Shadow writhed on the ground, bleeding black as it sank through invisible holes in the earth. A small light flashed for one fleeting moment, and with its departure the Heartless fell still. All that remained was a smoking pile of jagged bones and sticky blood already congealing. But there was no time to dwell. More Shadows flung themselves at her, and she was forced to defend.

The movements did not come naturally to her unpracticed limbs. But the keyblade seemed to compel her, as though driven with the strength of another. A guiding hand. One by one, the Heartless fell under her blade in writhing heaps of putrid flesh and bone. Kairi panted, her grip on the keyblade still firm as she looked around for others waiting to jump out at her.

"I think they're gone, Miss!"

Kairi looked up and saw a young boy peering at her from over a high balcony. His owlish looks made him appear more confused than her. With a shaking hand, she wiped the sweat from her brow and bangs, not really believing the boy's words.

"Who are you?"

"Me? Oh, I uh, haha!" He waved his arms about, as though this would help anyone. "Just wait there. I'll be, uh, right down! We'll go see Merlin."

"You know Merlin?" Kairi said, taking a step toward him. "I'm looking for him."

The boy made his way down to the ground level, and it was then that Kairi noticed his odd attire. He wore baggy, shapeless clothing decorated with an embroidered cross. She was sure he was even skinnier than she was under all those layers.

"Come on, we should go before more show up. Uh, this way!" He grabbed her free hand and began to drag her along.

"Hey, wait! Who are you?"

The blond boy turned to catch a glimpse of her over his shoulder and smiled nervously. "I'm Arthur. Come on!"

* * *

 

"You have to help me. I came all this way, and I'm not leaving until she's okay."

"Oh, my dear, please calm down. I understand that you're upset, but  _violence_ is not the answer."

"You haven't seen me get violent, old man. So can you do anything, or are the rumors just that?"

When Kairi and Arthur arrived at Merlin's hole in the wall, this was how they found him: with a sword pointed at his throat.

"M-Merlin!" Arthur sputtered.

Merlin and the woman restraining him turned at the sound of Arthur's voice. Kairi looked between Merlin and his guest, unsure what to make of this situation.

"Oh! Kairi, you're just in time!" Merlin said, stumbling backwards.

The woman cornering him growled and turned on Kairi and Arthur. "Who are you?"

"Uh, I live here?" Arthur said.

"It's all right," Merlin said, balancing his hand against the wall. "She means well."

"Hey, what's this?" Arthur reached out to touch what appeared to be a large, crystalline structure resting against the wall opposite the fireplace.

"No!" the woman said, smacking Arthur's hand away with enough force to knock him down.

"Hey!" Kairi said, running to help Arthur stand and turning to glare at the woman. "What's your problem? You can't just treat people like that."

"Oh, good heavens," Merlin said, shaking his head.

Kairi and the woman faced off, neither willing to back down. Kairi had never been confrontational (that was Riku's  _m.o._ ), but she wasn't about to stand by while a friend suffered mistreatment. Arthur had helped her, and she could tell his heart was good. He didn't deserve this kind of abuse.

The young woman looked like she wanted to retort, but she just scowled and showed Kairi her back. "Whatever."

Kairi frowned. She took a moment to look the other woman over, puzzled by her strange appearance. She wore a red cape and her sword, sheathed once more, hung from chains behind her thighs. Her armor was modest, but it gleamed under the sunlight filtering through the windows. And her hair was the most uncanny shade of pink Kairi had ever seen—like bubble gum.

But there was nothing bubbly about her.

The woman reached a hand out to touch the crystalline structure as Arthur had attempted to do before, and it was then that Kairi saw what it concealed. A young girl slept inside, entombed in the shimmering crystal. Dead to the world.

"If you can't help her, then I've wasted my time here," the woman said.

There was something very sad about the scene, although Kairi didn't even know this woman or the girl in the crystal coffin. When the woman lowered her hand, the faintest traces of light remained in her imprint, and Kairi gasped.

"A keyhole," she said, drawing closer.

"Hm? Oh, yes, it appears so," Merlin said.

"Keyhole?" the woman said, looking between the two of them. "What are you talking about?"

Taking advantage of the distraction, Kairi traced the outlines of the keyhole imprinted upon the crystal with her fingertips. Its glow grew stronger under her touch, and soon the shape was plain for all to see.

"That...wasn't there before," Arthur said.

"She's locked away," Merlin said. "The poor thing."

"What are you all talking about? What do you know that you're not telling me?" The woman put a hand on the hilt of her sword.

"It's her heart," Kairi said, still marveling over the glass tomb. "It’s what’s making her like this."

A hand on Kairi's shoulder forced her to turn and meet the woman's troubled gaze. "If you know what's wrong with her, then do something." She turned back to Merlin. "I was told I'd find powerful magic here that doesn't exist in my world. So fix her."

Kairi thought little of the woman's manhandling, more entranced by this keyhole. As though answering her thoughts, the keyblade appeared in her hand. The woman took a step forward to put herself between Kairi and the tomb.

"It's okay. I think this might help," Kairi said, indicating the keyblade. "A key opens locks."

The woman was skeptical, but Kairi stood her ground, patient.

"Fine."

Kairi pointed the keyblade at the glowing lock. The light outlining the keyhole grew brighter, and the keyblade began to hum. Her heart rate sped up in anticipation.

Except, nothing happened.

"So...how long do we have to wait?" Arthur asked.

Kairi shook the keyblade, confused. She was sure it would work.

"Figures. This was a mistake. I never should have come here," the woman said.

"No, wait!" Kairi said, reaching for her wrist without thinking. "Please, I know I can help you. It's just—"

"You don't have enough power," Merlin said, approaching them. "It should work, but you can't get something for nothing, you know! Whatever magic sealed that girl's heart away was powerful. You'll need an equal power to counteract it."

"What do I have to do?" the woman demanded. "I can't just leave Serah like this."

Merlin bent over and peered at Kairi's keyblade, his tired eyes reflecting the dancing pinks and purples of the blade's flower crown. "Well, I suppose you'll have to give the keyblade more power. Actually, Kairi, I'm glad you're here. I was worried Naminé had encountered some trouble when you were taking so long."

Kairi remembered Merlin from her previous escapades in Traverse Town. He'd been a kind friend as she waited to return to the Destiny Islands. Eccentric and a bit loopy, but kind. Perhaps now she could get some answers.

"So this isn't a dream," Kairi said. "Naminé really sent me here."

"Quite right. And you've got a very important task to accomplish." He turned to the woman and smiled, making his long, snowy beard twitch. "As do you, my dear."

Merlin proceeded to explain how and why Kairi had come to be here. Just as Naminé had said, there was a force tampering with everyone's memories and threatening the heart of a boy at the center of it. He couldn't say who this boy was or how he was connected to Kairi, only that he existed. It was the strangest thing, trying to remember a person she'd never known. Merlin was having the same difficulty.

"All should reveal itself once the task is complete," Merlin went on. "To restore a heart fallen to darkness, you have to bring it back into the light, permanently. And that requires the light of hearts too pure to house darkness in any form."

"The Princesses of Heart," Kairi said, understanding. She touched a hand to her own heart.

"Precisely." Merlin peered at her over his thick spectacles. "And now you see why you must be the one to embark on this journey, yes? Only a Princess of Heart can contain the power of pure light and not go blind."

"Blind?" Arthur said, nervous.

Merlin chuckled. "Yes, my boy. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing, you know. Darkness is no more 'bad' than light is 'good' in the wrong hands. Too much light and even the sharpest eyes lose their focus. There’s no telling what horrors you might stumble upon running around blind."

Kairi studied her keyblade, wondering about that.

"Anyway, enough of my rubbish. When you collect the Princesses' light, you'll have the strength to obliterate true darkness. Only then can you restore a fragmented heart."

"This is all very touching," the woman said, having remained silent as Merlin prattled on. "But it's got nothing to do with me. I don't care about some sleeping kid who lost his memories. I'm here for Serah."

Merlin cleared his throat. "Yes, well, that's the goal. To restore a heart fragmented by darkness." Merlin waved a hand and shafts of light suddenly shot forth from the crystal tomb, illuminating cracks in the shimmering stone. "You must bind it with the purest light."

Kairi held her keyblade in both hands, wondering. "So, when I get the other Princesses' power, I'll be able to help Serah."

"Precisely."

Kairi looked up to find the woman staring at her. There was pain in those eyes, a sadness that had chased her all the way here from whatever world she'd come. No, not sadness.

"I'll do everything I can to help Serah," Kairi said with conviction. "I give you my word."

The woman was taken aback by this sudden declaration, and it was the first non-threatening reaction Kairi had seen out of her.

"All right. I'll hold you to your promise, though."

It was a warning, but it only made Kairi smile. "I always keep my promises."

"Sure you do. But all the same, I'd like to be certain." The woman turned to meet Kairi's gaze once more. "So I'll be going with you to collect this light."

"Oh, splendid! I was hoping you'd say that," Merlin said, rummaging through his bag on the nearby kitchen table. "Splendid, splendid. Now, if only I could find my spells! I know I put them in here somewhere."

Kairi laughed. The old wizard was as batty as ever. She dismissed her keyblade and held a hand out to the woman who'd be her new partner—hopefully for the better.

"I'm Kairi, by the way. I guess we'll be working together for awhile, so I hope we can get along."

The woman eyed Kairi's offered hand and radiant smile with suspicious blue eyes, but after a moment's hesitation she accepted the gesture of goodwill. Her grip was sturdy, confident, but not painful.

"Call me Lightning."

* * *

 

"Heartless, Nobodies, fal'Cie... As far as I'm concerned, they're all asking for the pointy end of my sword."

Lightning rested a hand on the hilt of her sword as though ready to cut down anyone who dared challenge her. Arthur had not been able to stop staring at her since she'd calmed down enough merely to look intimidating instead of lashing out.

Kairi sighed. Arthur was in a little over his head, in her opinion, but it was of little consequence. Having rested and heard Merlin's information about the kinds of enemies they would encounter, Kairi and Lightning were nearly ready to depart Hollow Bastion. Kairi would be lying if she said she wasn't scared; after everything she'd seen in the past and her most recent confrontation with the Heartless, it was clear that her life was on the line. All for a boy she couldn't even remember.

"Now then, you'll need to visit the other six Princesses in order to obtain the power to free Serah and help your friend, ehm, whoever he may be," Merlin explained. "Naminé will be working to restore his memories in the meantime, so together you should be able to save him."

"Naminé's really doing a lot," Kairi said. "He must be important to her."

Merlin studied Kairi, his look pensive. "Well, in any case, let me explain how you'll be getting around. You arrived here through a corridor of darkness, if you recall."

"That's right."

"But you have no sway over darkness. You'll have to find alternate transportation. Come here, please."

Kairi rose from her chair and joined Merlin in the center of the room near a giant computer with several monitors.

"Just as darkness connects all worlds, so, too, does light. It's along those paths of light that you'll be able to move between worlds. Even the Heartless cannot follow you there."

"So, how do we access these light superhighways, old man?" Lightning asked, standing and crossing her arms.

"Oh, yes, I'm glad you asked that! Allow me to demonstrate."

It took some practice and several failed attempts, but Kairi soon got the hang of the spell to open a gateway. A vortex of shining light undulated where before there was only thin air. It was almost too bright.

"Ah, one more thing: don't dally in there. Like I mentioned before, stare into the heart of light for too long and you'll lose your ability to distinguish anything at all."

Silence befell the room as that thought sank in. Kairi had seen what true darkness did to a person when Ansem possessed Riku. If light had the same potential, a duty of care was indeed required.

"Go on, time is wasting!" Merlin said. "Find the princesses and borrow their power. Everything depends on it."

Lightning gazed at Serah with an unreadable expression. She was about to reach out and touch Serah's crystal coffin, but refrained at the last moment. "I'll save you, Serah. Just wait a little longer."

"Come now, I'm not getting any younger over here!" Merlin said, waving.

Lighting let her gaze linger on Serah one last time, then joined Kairi. "All right, kid. Let's make this fast."

The unlikely duo approached the shimmering gateway, and Kairi took a deep breath. Finally, she was going to do something to help the ones she loved. Maybe she'd run into Riku on the way. The last time they'd seen each other he was drowning in darkness, only able to resist at the horror of nearly killing her.

"Ready?" Lightning asked, looking down at her.

Kairi blinked, the memories of that terrible scene fading. "Oh, yeah, sorry."

They stepped forward together into the light, and Kairi brought a hand up to shield her eyes.

"Oh, one last thing," Merlin said. "Kairi's heart is an anomaly, an imbalance of nature. The darkness will flock to her fiercely. Take care to watch your backs, both of you. I trust you'll need each other more than you know."

"We will, Merlin," Kairi said as the light enveloped Lighting and herself. "Thank you!"

Lighting said nothing as the brightness consumed them and everything faded into oblivion.


	2. Through the Looking Glass

__  
“And in a wonderland they lie, dreaming as the days go by.  
And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you’d be?”

* * *

 

When they landed, Kairi and Lightning stumbled out of the corridor of light on ungainly legs, like they’d just set foot on land after a long journey at sea. Kairi rubbed her eyes and looked around. A broad expanse of lush meadow grass stretched before them. In the distance she could make out a forest, as well as a stream cutting through the meadow and disappearing within the thick trees. The sun was high in the sky, and flowers smiled up at her in reds, pinks, purples, and yellows. But something was off.

“Okay, what am I looking at?” Lightning said, having picked up on the oddity, too.

Dark patches of shadow peppered the landscape, perhaps several acres deep. It wouldn’t have been so jarring if not for the walls of darkness that barred them on all sides—walls of night. Kairi could even make out stars and moonlight within them. It was like night and day existed in discrete form and fashion simultaneously, all laid out in grid form.

“It looks...like a giant chessboard,” Kairi said, incredulous.

“I thought you said you’d been here before.”

Without responding, Kairi stepped toward the nearest expanse of night and reached out a hand. It passed through with little resistance, and she stepped forward. It was like someone had flipped a switch. Where before it was high noon in a peaceful meadow with birds chirping and the sun shining on her skin, in here the chill of night made her shiver a little. Moonflowers bloomed pearlescent and bright under the pale light of the stars, and crickets sang a symphony of untuned music to their own beat. Like night and day, literally.

Lightning had followed her through the barrier into the dark square, silent as she awaited an explanation but no less confounded than Kairi.

“I thought so, too,” Kairi said. “But I don’t remember Wonderland looking like this. Maybe we took a wrong turn?”

Lightning picked a moonflower and twirled it in her fingers, blue eyes narrowed. “I don’t think so. This was the only way to go. That princess has to be here.”

“Alice,” Kairi said. “Yeah, I think she is. We just have to find her now.”

Movement caught Kairi’s eye, but there was nothing there.

“Oh no,” Kairi said, summoning her keyblade.

“What is it?”

No sooner had Lightning spoken than a small horde of Heartless stepped out of the shadows. They looked like Shadows, but they were much taller, taller than the average human, even. Sinister, yellow eyes slitted and found Kairi and Lightning. One of them roared, baring razor-sharp teeth and a salivating, purple tongue. The others followed suit, and Kairi felt the first chills of fear run up her spine. Lightning drew her sword and crouched, ready for battle.

“Kid, I’m assuming you know how to fend for yourself?”

Kairi looked left and right, counting the Heartless and holding out her keyblade. “Well, I took out a few Heartless before I met you.”

Lightning scowled. “Great.”

Before they could continue their conversation, the Heartless lunged and swiped at them with too-long claws and a bone-chilling battle cry. Lightning swung her sword and slashed through the nearest enemy. The sound of squelching innards made Kairi a little sick, but Lightning didn’t even flinch. Even dripping with black blood, Kairi could just make out sparkling veins in Lightning’s sword, as if it crackled with a light all its own.

“Don’t just stand there!” Lightning said, advancing on the next Heartless.

Kairi swallowed and tried to ignore the rancid smell of rotting flesh as the now dead Heartless decomposed at her feet. This was no time to be squeamish. Gathering her composure, Kairi gripped her keyblade and prepared for battle. Just in time, too. Another Heartless warrior jumped toward her and clawed at her chest, hoping to rip out her heart and harvest it to create more Heartless. Kairi was not about to let it.

With a grunt of effort, she parried the Heartless’ attack with her keyblade and found herself locked in a battle of strength with a creature of darkness. It was strong, far stronger than she, and her elbows shook with the effort to keep it from knocking her over. But then, something strange happened. Smoke began to rise from the Heartless’ claws where it gripped the keyblade, faint at first but gradually becoming thick and potent. It made Kairi’s eyes water.

The Heartless screeched and Kairi bit her tongue, drawing blood. As though burned, the Heartless pulled away and stumbled. Kairi stared, shocked at the unexpected leniency. The Heartless’ claws were melting, the flesh falling off to reveal sinewy muscles and bone before dissolving into shadows. Veins of light tore at its appendages where it had grasped the keyblade. The keyblade itself glimmered with light where the Heartless had touched it. Kairi felt like she might throw up, but another Heartless lunged for her. Gasping, she tried to meet it with her keyblade, but she was too slow.

Just when Kairi thought she might end up with a chunk of herself lopped off by the incoming Heartless, a bolt of lightning slammed into the Heartless and drove it into the ground. It convulsed with the effects of the electroshock, its dark hide cracking and releasing steam as though it were dehydrating at high speed. Black blood spilled from its jaundiced eyes and gaping maw as the life slowly left it.

Wide-eyed and disgusted, Kairi turned to the source of her savior. Lightning met her gaze briefly, her sword still sparking in the aftermath of the attack. But there was no time for thank-yous or further questioning; more Heartless rushed to fill their fallen comrades’ places, and Kairi was forced to resume the trial all over again. Nothing about slicing through thick flesh to the brittle bones beneath came easily. This was a kind of murder, she thought, to take the life of another living thing. They glowed bright under the keyblade’s strikes, like the light that leaves a person’s eyes when they die. Kairi wasn’t sure when she’d begun to cry as she hacked her way through the few enemies that escaped Lightning and found her, but by the time help arrived she felt sticky and hot despite the nighttime chill.

“Watch out!”

Out of nowhere, a white blur slammed into a Heartless that was about to attack Kairi. The Heartless roared, and Kairi shielded herself with the keyblade. Upon closer inspection she could make out a tall man atop a white horse cutting at the Heartless with the broadest sword Kairi had ever seen. His armor was pure white and gleaming, nearly blinding when contrasted with the Heartless’s black blood splatter.

“Kairi! Over here!”

A feminine voice drew Kairi’s attention. Alice, clad entirely in white, was waving to her from one of the daylight squares.

“Alice!”

“Quickly! My Pieces will handle the rest of the Heartless!”

Kairi nodded and searched for Lightning, who was busy facing three Heartless at once. Still, the older woman did not look fazed by the odds.

“Lightning!” she called.

Lightning scowled at a charging Heartless and met its attack with her sword, propelling it backwards. Another man draped in fortified white armor with a castle insignia emblazoned upon his chest spun toward the Heartless as Lightning retreated. The Heartless screamed at the girls’ retreat, but Alice’s white guards kept them at bay. Crossing back into the realm of daylight, Kairi panted from the earlier exertion and adrenaline. Thankfully, the smell of decay and rot did not follow them here. Alice waited near a shimmering portal.

“Through here!” she called, beckoning the two women.

Kairi followed suit, Lightning hot on her tail, and jumped through the portal. Alice followed them.

When she emerged on the other side, Kairi found herself in a wide room with a long fireplace that stretched the length of an entire wall. A lavish dining table sat in the middle of the room, its white table cloth bright against the dark stone walls. Candelabras glowed in wall sconces, bathing the room in a soft, warm light. More white-clad people populated the room, some standing guard at the large double doors that marked the only exit, while others stood against the wall silent and stiff.

When Alice emerged, followed by a few more white guards, the portal closed. “Goodness, are you all right?”

Lightning was looking around, blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. She had yet to sheath her sword, and Kairi didn’t really blame her. This was all very strange.

“Yeah, I think so,” Kairi said, lowering her keyblade. “Alice...what’s going on? What is this place?”

“That’s ‘Your Majesty’ to you, peasant!”

A small child in a stiff, white dress ran between Alice and Kairi, her face wrinkled in distaste. Kairi blinked, surprised that a four-foot-tall little girl could project such audacity. Alice put a hand on her shoulder and smiled.

“It’s all right, Pawn. Kairi is a princess, and she’s a friend.”

“A-A princess?” Pawn said, covering her mouth with her tiny hands. “Oh! Oh, I’m so sorry! Please forgive me, Your Majesty.”

Kairi wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, but she refrained. “It’s all right, um, Pawn.” returning her attention to Alice she said, “So, this is different.”

“I’ll say,” Lightning said. “So this is Alice? Let’s get what we came for and get out of here, Kairi.”

Lightning attempted to join Alice and Kairi, but two white guards halted her advance with deadly halberds. Lightning brandished her sword at them, clearly not happy about the interference, but Alice raised a hand.

“Please, they are my guests. Treat them with respect. They mean me no harm.”

“But Your Majesty, this one is hostile,” one of the white guards protested.

Alice shook her head. “Any friend of Kairi’s is welcome. Now, if you please.”

The guards were not happy about it, but they lowered their weapons and let Lightning pass. Still, Lightning did not sheathe her sword.

“...Your Majesty?” Lightning said. “I knew we were looking for princesses, but that seems like a bit much.”

“Alice, I think you better explain. This isn’t the Wonderland I remember,” Kairi said.

Alice nodded. “Of course. Please, have a seat. You must be famished. We’ll discuss it over dinner, and you can rest here without worrying about the Heartless.”

Once refreshed and fed, Kairi and Lightning found themselves at the dining table with Alice and a man who’d introduced himself as Bishop, though he had not said much more. Alice explained that this was not Wonderland as it used to be, but Looking Glass, a mirror image of Wonderland turned on its head.

“And I thought Wonderland was a little bit turned on its head as it was,” Kairi said.

“Yes, I know. Everything is even more in chaos than it was before,” Alice said, sipping her tea.

“And you’re some kind of queen?” Lightning asked. “Who died?”

Kairi shoved Lightning under the table.

“What? You don’t become a queen until the last one dies.”

Alice set down her tea. “Yes, that’s true. I didn’t plan it, really. Things just have a way of going topsy turvy in this world, whether you like it or not.”

“I can see that.”

“To be brief, I’m called the White Queen here, and the white guards you see are my Pieces. They defend me, like so.”

She gestured to the chessboard that sat on the table between its four occupants. One side housed the white pieces, and the other was lined with red pieces.

Kairi tapped the white queen piece with a finger. “So, let me guess: the daylight squares are your realm.”

“That’s correct,” Alice said, moving a few white pieces forward on the light squares.

Lightning plucked a red pawn from the opposite side of the board and twirled it between her fingers. “So if you’re on Team White, who’s the enemy?”

“That would be the Red Queen,” Bishop said, speaking for the first time since he’d introduced himself earlier. “And I assure you, she is not to be trifled with.”

Lightning seemed unperturbed. “Right.”

“Ever since I returned from Hollow Bastion, things haven’t been quite right. I didn’t notice it at first, but after a time I realized everything seemed a bit backwards. What was up was down, and what was down was up,” Alice said. “Soon, I discovered that this wasn’t Wonderland, but a parallel world turned on its head.”

“Looking Glass,” Kairi said, studying the chessboard. “And...you’re playing a game against this Red Queen?”

“Precisely. But the loser doesn’t just shuffle her chips and move on.”

“Losing means your life,” Lightning said, setting the red pawn back in its place. “So you win, or you die.”

“...Yes,” Alice said, uncomfortable.

“Who’s this Red Queen? What does she want?” Kairi asked.

“She wants me gone,” Alice said, barely audible. “And I simply don’t know why! I’ve never done anything to her, and yet she showed up one day demanding my head. Oh dear.”

“Sounds like the Queen of Hearts.”

Alice shook her head. “No, she’s far worse. She’s ruthless, and she delights in the pain of others. She and I are like night and day. I cannot understand her.”

Silence fell as Kairi and Lightning thought on this.

“Well anyway, we don’t have time to stick around here,” Lightning said, standing. “Kairi, get her power and let’s keep moving.”

“How dare you speak to Her Majesty in such a manner!” Bishop said, also standing.

Faster than the eye could see, Lightning drew her sword and pointed it at Bishop’s throat. Alice gasped.

“I’m kind of in a hurry. You’ll forgive my manners, I’m sure,” Lightning said, expression stony and cold.

Kairi rose and put a hand on Lightning’s wrist, bidding her lower her weapon. “Please, stop this. They aren’t our enemy.”

“Perhaps if you explained what it is you’re seeking, I can better assist you,” Alice offered.

Lightning thought about this for a moment, and eventually lowered her blade. She reclaimed her seat and crossed her arms. “Fine, but I’m done wasting time. Serah’s counting on me.”

Kairi’s gaze lingered on her partner, troubled. She wanted to help, but it seemed like there was a wall she would have to scale just to get through to Lightning. It would not be an easy journey. Everyone reclaimed their seats, and Kairi began to explain her quest to Alice and Bishop. Once finished, Alice shook her head.

“I’d like to help you, but I don’t know if I have the power you seek. You see, there’s something I didn’t mention before.”

“What is it?”

“Remember how I told you this world is a mirror image of Wonderland? Well, it isn’t just the world itself that’s been uprooted.”

She retrieved the red queen piece from its spot on the chessboard with delicate fingers and handed it to Kairi. Kairi accepted the tiny piece, puzzled.

“When Maleficent gathered all the Princesses of Heart in Hollow Bastion to open the Door to Darkness, she sealed our hearts into a keyblade. Her plan—Ansem’s plan—was to use that keyblade to unlock the door. Your heart was the last one needed. But in separating our hearts from our bodies, something terrible happened. Do you know anything about Nobodies?”

Kairi nodded. “Merlin explained them to us. They’re what’s left over when a heart leaves its vessel.”

“Yes, that’s right. You and I are Princesses of Heart. There’s no darkness in our hearts, so when our hearts left our bodies, we didn’t turn into Heartless. But we do have a body and soul, and that body and soul transformed into a Nobody.”

“Wait, so...there’s another you running around here?”

“Not just another me,” Alice said, tapping the red queen piece piece in Kairi’s hands. “Another princess. Except just like everything else in this world, she is the opposite of me in every way.”

“The Red Queen is your Nobody,” Kairi said, astonished. “And she’s fighting you? But she’s a part of you, isn’t she?”

Alice nodded. “Yes, and that’s why I’m having so much trouble. My guards want to destroy her, but I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. If she is me and I am her, what would happen to one if the other is destroyed?”

“What’s the point of all this?” Lightning asked.

“The point is that she is half of me, and so holds half of my power. Without her, I’m not whole. And I can’t help you.”

Kairi stared at the red queen piece, troubled. “Have you tried talking to her? Maybe she doesn’t realize how important she is to you.”

“I have,” Alice said, sighing. “She won’t hear reason. I suppose I should expect little else in this world. Perhaps I should have learned my lesson by now. Everyone’s mad here.”

“Then we’ll make her listen,” Lightning said. “If she’s all that’s missing for us to get what we came for, then I’ll bring her here myself.”

“Lightning,” Kairi said, worried.

The pink-haired woman glared at Kairi. “Life isn’t fair, Kairi. Sometimes to get what you want, you have to spill a little blood. That’s just the way it is. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll be able to save your friend.”

Kairi was taken aback by Lightning’s blunt candor, and words eluded her. The anger was there, though. To look upon life so callously, like it was nothing but disposable flesh and blood rather than love and friendship and everything else that bound people together seemed deplorable to her.

“I think that’s exactly what has to happen,” Alice said. “I’m not happy about it, but until Caelix and I are reunited, I can’t give you the power you need. And that’s simply unacceptable.”

“Caelix?”

“The Red Queen. That’s her name,” Bishop said, dark eyes narrowed at Lightning. “The nerve of her choosing a name when she’s not even a real being. Nobodies don’t have hearts. They’re just dreaming.”

“So...may I enlist your help in apprehending Caelix?” Alice asked.

“Consider it done...Your Majesty,” Lightning said, rising to leave.

Kairi stood up, too. “Yeah, we’ll help out. It sounds like your world won’t be okay until Caelix is taken care of, anyway.”

Alice took Kairi’s hands in hers, smiling. “Very good. We’ll have all of my White Army at our backs, so you won’t be doing this unaided. I only wish I could be more helpful myself.”

Kairi shook her head. “No, this is plenty. Thanks, Alice.”

Kairi turned to retire to the room Alice had set aside for her earlier, ready to get some sleep before the battle that awaited her tomorrow, but Alice’s voice stopped her.

“You know, I admire you, Kairi. If I could take up arms to fight for what I believe in, I think I would be a much better person than I am. You’re lucky.”

Kairi’s eyes fell. How could she believe in a person she couldn’t even remember? And was she ready to give her life for him if need be? But she kept those thoughts to herself.

“...Yeah. Good night, Alice.”

Kairi left before more words could be exchanged.

* * *

 

Footsteps echoed upon hand-carved stone drawn up with runes in loops and languages dead to the world. The ceiling was almost too high for the naked eye to see, and at the edge of the walkway stretched a white abyss, endless and bright. He walked ever forward. The terrors of the light had never bothered him, nor had those of the darkness; they held no sway over Nothing.

“You look pleased. Something catch your eye?”

Saïx approached in near silence, sharp eyes narrowing at the undulating pool into which his colleague was looking.

“Oh yes,” Luxord said, smiling a little. “Although it’s a bit early to tell.”

Curious, though he would never admit it to the gambler, Saïx peered into the trough’s silvery waters for a better look. “Huh. How did she get off that island?”

Luxord chuckled. “You know, Saïx, I should think you’d be the last of us to fall prey to appearances. They _are_ deceiving, after all.”

Saïx ignored the slight, but only because it was true. He appeared delicate, almost feminine, compared to other members of Organization XIII, but he was second in command. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Apparently, Naminé had something to do with it.”

“I knew that girl was trouble when we found her. If not for her powers, I’d have killed her myself when I had the chance.”

“Temper, temper. She’s no longer our problem, anyway.” Luxord reached into a hidden pocket and withdrew a pair of dice, which he proceeded to turn over in one hand. “Anyway, this game’s only just begun. No sense in throwing all your cards in so soon.”

Saïx ignored that and continued to watch the scene in the water. “I can only assume this means our plot to corrupt the Princesses’ Nobodies has been discovered.”

“You’re so pessimistic. This is a challenge, not a defeat.”

Luxord waved a hand over the trough, willing the scene to change. Within its silvery depths, Kairi and Lightning were preparing to set out from Alice’s castle along with the White Army, looking steady and calm.

Luxord bared his teeth in a grin. “After all, a game needs players.”

* * *

 

Kairi let her eyes drift from the checkered landscape, beyond which lay the Red Queen, to the White Army Alice had provided as backup. No matter how Kairi looked at it, she was marching off to war. There would be Heartless and other enemies, and many would die. It seemed like only yesterday she was safe on the Destiny Islands, ignorant of all the wrong in the worlds. She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

“We’re all ready to depart, I think,” Alice said. “Are you set to leave?”

Kairi nodded. “I suppose so.”

“We’ll win. We must. After all, you have to help your friend, right?”

Kairi didn’t have an answer for her, but Alice didn’t seem to mind as she rummaged about her pocket for something.

“Here, I want you to have this,” she said, handing Kairi a small green jewel. It was shaped like a teardrop.

“What’s this?” Kairi took the gem and held it up to the sunlight.

“It’s a healing spell. I’ve already mastered it, so I thought you could make some use of it.”

“Magic? But I’ve never used magic before.”

Alice smiled. “Why not start now? Maybe it will come in handy where we’re going.”

Kairi pocketed the gem, hoping things wouldn’t come to that. “Thanks, Alice.”

“Your Majesty, will you see the King before we depart?” Bishop asked, approaching the two princesses.

Kairi quirked an eyebrow. “King?”

Alice blushed madly. “Y-Yes, very good, Bishop. I’ll be over in just a moment, thank you.”

Bishop bowed and left the girls in peace. Kairi smirked and pointed a finger at Alice.

“So, looks like you didn’t just gain a Nobody after the adventure in Hollow Bastion.”

Alice stared at her toes, now beet red with embarrassment. Kairi laughed.

“I’m sorry, I’m just happy for you. It must be nice to have someone so dear to you in your life.”

Alice met her eyes, expression unreadable. “But you should know. He’s very special to you, isn’t he?”

Kairi frowned. “...Who are you talking about?”

Alice blinked and averted her eyes, suddenly confused. “Hm? Ah, what was I saying?”

“Your Majesty, the king is waiting,” Bishop called.

“Oh! Yes, I’ll be right there.” Alice smiled and excused herself before Kairi could get another word in.

“You nervous, kid?”

Lightning walked up beside Kairi and looked over the army below them, expression grim.

“Should I be?”

“You don’t know much about hand-to-hand combat. I would be, in your shoes.”

Kairi pressed her lips together. Not many things discouraged her, but the fact of her own physical limitations was one of them. How could she help anyone if she couldn’t fight up to par?

“Maybe you should just stay here,” Lightning went on. “I’ll bring that Red Queen back with her head on a pike. Easy, no complications.”

Kairi stepped in front of Lightning, her earlier discomfort replaced by anger. “Hey, first of all, no one’s killing anyone. Caelix is a part of Alice, so killing her isn’t an option. And secondly, we’re in this together. We’re partners.”

Lightning was normally neutral and apathetic, but right now it appeared Kairi had said something to set her off.

“You and I are _not_ partners. I’m just here to make sure you live long enough to bring Serah back, that’s it. Like I said, you’d be better off staying here than rushing off into battle. There might not be anyone around to save you like last time.”

Kairi was so taken aback that words escaped her. By the time she’d collected herself, Lightning had already left to join the White Army as it prepared to march. Frozen in place, Kairi’s hands shook with emotion. How could Lightning say such a thing? This was her quest, her burden to bear. _She’d_ been the one to offer to help Serah in the first place.

“Pieces, prepare to march!” Alice called to her army.

Kairi watched as the army began to shuffle forward, slowly but surely, numb. Lightning wasn’t wrong, and there was little Kairi could do to change that. Always the delicate damsel, even her bloodline was against her agency. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to fight, but her very nature, her _entire life_ , had named her the prize to be won instead of the warrior fighting to win it.

Why would anyone trust a princess to do a knight’s job?

She shook her head. These thoughts would do no one any good. Unsteady and questioning Merlin’s decision to send her on this journey, Kairi joined the White Army’s ranks and set out to search for the Red Queen.

* * *

 

They marched for days before they found any signs of the Red Army. By then, Heartless had picked off a number of the White Army’s outriders. Kairi remembered the monstrous Heartless she’d seen in the past, nightmares given life, but now that she was fighting them herself they seemed all the more terrifying. With skin darker than the blackest night and a warped appearance that marked them as unnatural and inhuman, she still found it difficult to think of them as mindless monsters when their bones crunched and their blood spurted just as she imagined a living person’s would under the wicked force of her keyblade.

Alice marched with them, bent on meeting her other half and bringing her to justice. Kairi wondered what it must be like to know that a part of her was living somewhere in the world, wreaking havoc. Nobodies sounded far worse than the Heartless, especially if they could think and plot and mobilize others to do their bidding.

Lightning had not spoken to her almost the entire trip. Even in the heat of battle she would defend Kairi but never so much as look at her. It was beginning to wear on Kairi’s nerves to know that Lightning thought so little of her. There was a tragic emptiness in Lightning’s eyes, in the way she moved and spoke, that made Kairi feel cold, like nothing was allowed to be warm and bright in Lightning’s presence.

It reminded her a little of Riku.

Kairi’s childhood friend had always been independent and confident in his own power. Riku was strong, so it was to be expected. But somewhere along the way, that confidence had turned to arrogance. Blinded by the need for more power to accomplish his goals, Riku had delved into darkness, and the darkness in turn had consumed him from the inside out. Kairi wasn’t sure what had befallen her dear friend after seeing him overpowered by Ansem’s darkness, but she believed he was alive. He had to be. Darkness or no, Riku’s heart was one of the strongest around; he wouldn’t give up or die so easily. It was just a matter of time before she finally found him again.

Lightning was lost, just as Riku had been lost. But Kairi didn’t know enough about her new companion to understand why. At this rate, it seemed unlikely that she ever would. But she had to try. If not for the sake of her mission, then because she wanted to understand for her own benefit. Lightning was strong, but even the strongest fire cannot burn forever in a cold void all alone.

Today, on the third day of marching, the group found what they were looking for.

“I thought I smelled vermin.”

A young woman watched the White Army from atop a cliff half in darkness and half in light. She was clad entirely in red, and her wild black black hair gave her a discomfitting look. But there was no mistaking it: those blue eyes were Alice’s.

“Caelix,” Alice said from atop a white horse. “I’ve come to end this. It’s not right for us to fight when we’re one and the same. Please, stop this.”

Caelix threw her head back and howled with laughter. “You pitiful creature! As if you could _ever_ group us together! I’m not a simpering fool like you, Alice. Unlike you, I had to work for my throne.”

Nearby, Lightning unsheathed her sword. Kairi summoned her keyblade, too. The Red Army was nowhere in sight, however.

“I don’t want to use violence to settle this,” Alice said. “But I cannot let you continue to terrorize this world. It’s just wrong!”

Caelix stopped laughing abruptly as a dark aura settled around her. Kairi bit the inside of her cheek. She had a bad feeling about this.

“Then perhaps I’ll terrorize you instead. Pieces!”

Surrounded on all sides by dark squares, Kairi watched as menacing red chess pieces emerged from the shadows alongside numerous Heartless and unfamiliar white creatures with elongated appendages. The white creatures’ mouths stretched wide across their inflated heads, the insides lined with row after row of sharp teeth. Worst of all, they appeared to have no eyes.

 _Dusks_ , Kairi thought instinctively. Merlin had warned them about this type of humanoid Nobody. They didn’t look like Heartless, but they gave her a similar feeling. No, it was _worse_.

“Caelix!” Alice cried, worriedly looking around at the force of enemies surrounding her army.

Caelix bared her teeth in a smile that sent chills up Kairi’s spine. “I’ll make you a deal, _other me_. If you can get past my army, then I’ll give you a free pass to storm my castle. Of course, that’s assuming you won’t be torn to pieces and get your heart ripped out!”

“Your Majesty, please stay back,” said a White Knight, his horse herding Alice’s to safety.

“Hide all you want, but my Pieces will find you. And then, I’ll feed your heart to the Nobodies!” Caelix said. “Red Army, attack!”

The battle was fierce and bloody. Right away, Kairi noticed that there were far fewer red pieces than white; most of the Red Queen’s forces were made up of Heartless and Dusks. Even if Alice’s army won this battle, it would be at a disadvantage facing the full might of the Red Army later. It was a dirty strategy on the Red Queen’s part, but there was nothing that could be done now.

_Squelch!_

Kairi spun just in time to avoid a flying black appendage with too-long nails hurtling through the air toward her. The Heartless’ arm landed in the churned earth at her feet, leaking black blood and still twitching. Kairi shuddered, but this was not the time to be squeamish. Returning her attention to the battle at hand, she ran at the nearest enemy and aimed her keyblade.

The Red Pawn had not been expecting her, and taking the child out proved to be uncomplicated. He hit his head against a rock protruding from the ground, his red helmet cracking. He did not get up, and Kairi forced herself to look away. She hoped he was merely unconscious.

Nearby, Lightning was plowing through Heartless as though they cut like butter. Their dying screams were blood-curdling. Kairi wondered how she could mow them down without consequence, like she couldn’t even hear their wails. It was like Lightning was more machine than human, or some kind of empty shell. Right now, Kairi wished she could channel some of that cold power.

“Help me!”

The distress call drew Kairi’s attention, and she saw one of Alice’s White Knights pinned to the ground under three Dusks, their curling arms coiled about him like snakes. Kairi moved to help, but what she saw next petrified her to the core. One of the Dusks ripped apart the knight’s gleaming armor, exposing pale flesh underneath. Then, it threw its head back in a roar before sinking jagged teeth into the bared flesh.

The knight screamed, and Kairi watched as blood squirted from the entry wound in rhythmic spurts: _shloop...shloop...shloop._

The Dusk convulsed and thrashed its inflated head back and forth, finally pulling back. In its jaws was a mass of dripping red, and if Kairi looked closely enough, she could see it beating faintly.

 _A heart_.

This fear was like none she had ever experienced. Watching the Dusk chew up the White Knight’s heart, his blood bright against the ashen white of its maw, was too much. She wanted to curl up, throw up, anything to shake this terrible nightmare.

_“Move!”_

Trance-like, Kairi felt her body pull her spirit along, faster and faster, closer to the three Dusks drowning in their prey’s blood. She raised her keyblade and swung with all her might. The beautiful crown of flowers smashed into the feasting Dusk’s large head, splitting taut flesh and bone until reaching the soft brain matter hidden in the center. It was dead before it (or Kairi) knew what hit it.

The other two Nobodies clicked and hissed at Kairi and their fallen comrade as she leveraged her keyblade with a foot to pry it loose. Black blood and lumpy brain bits clung to the crown, smoking and burning away before her eyes. The Dusk she’d killed began to decompose almost instantly, its flesh melting off its strange skeleton and releasing a few orbs of light—one for each heart it had eaten. It took Kairi a moment to realize she was crying. Her tears mingled with speckles of the Dusk’s blood on her face and her own sweat.

There were still two Dusks left, and she wasn’t about to let them do to her what they’d done to Alice’s White Knight. If it was them or her, she would have to fight to the death. They uncurled their arms from the knight’s mutilated corpse and slithered toward her. Kairi readied her keyblade and jumped to meet them head on, tears falling on the wind behind her.

* * *

 

Lightning’s throat stung with each labored breath. These _things_ just kept coming, like they could not feel pain or fear at all. Members of the White Army fell all around her, one by one, ten by ten. These Heartless were small fries compared to the fal’Cie threat to her world, but they were no pushovers, either. The white ones, Nobodies, were even more gruesome. She’d seen a couple of them feasting on a White Rook’s heart. Disgusted, she fried them with a thunder spell and some well-timed swordwork.

All the while Lightning searched for the Red Queen, who was nowhere to be found. A part of her told her she should have been looking out for Kairi, who could not defend herself properly, but Serah’s memory drove Lightning’s blade ever forward. It was nothing personal, but Lightning wasn’t here to play retainer to a little princess.

Night never descended upon the light squares, but the hours dragged by and the bodies piled up. The White Army had the clear advantage of numbers, but even so their numbers suffered from the ambush. Lightning stepped over rotting corpses and bleeding red pieces, unflinching as she searched for Kairi.

She found the girl staring down at a croaking Nobody, its flesh steadily melting over its thin bones. The keyblade hung limp in Kairi’s hand, which was drenched in black blood to the elbow.

Lightning had never been squeamish or particularly empathetic (perhaps to her detriment), but the sight of Kairi watching this monster die slowly and painfully, her expression hollow, sent a chill up Lightning’s spine.

“It was human once, you know,” Kairi said, not bothering to look at Lightning.

The Dusk lifted one of its tapered arms and reached for the pair. Blood and muscle dripped from the appendage until only the smoking bones remained. It clicked and croaked, perhaps damning them or vowing revenge. Kairi just stood there, unmoving.

Lightning couldn’t take it anymore. Without a word, she took aim and jammed the end of her sword through the Dusk’s skull. It convulsed briefly, then fell still. Kairi didn’t flinch.

“But it isn’t anymore.”

Lightning retrieved her sword and spared the younger girl a glance askance. She’d seen that look before. War had a way of killing those who partook of it, even if they didn’t end up dead. Kairi bore a little blood splatter, a sign of sloppy kills. Her keyblade was steaming, like she’d dunked it in boiling water only moments ago. Bits of flesh clung to it, also smoking and dissolving before Lightning’s eyes. She wondered how many monsters the little princess had slain and found herself feeling a little guilty, though she couldn’t say why.

“No, it’s not,” Lightning said, wiping her blade on the grass and sheathing it. “None of those things are. They don’t deserve mercy, not yours and not mine.”

Kairi watched her with a heavy stare, unreadable and ancient. “What about Caelix? Do you think she deserves mercy?”

She knew what Kairi meant, and it was annoying. Sure, Caelix seemed human enough, not like the Dusks they’d slaughtered. But it made no difference. “She’s the same as these things. Her mask’s just prettier. You shouldn’t let it fool you, kid.”

“Kairi! Lightning!”

Alice’s voice ended their conversation, and Lightning was a little grateful for it. Kairi wasn’t herself right now, and that was uncomfortable. Alice had abandoned her horse and she looked a bit frazzled, but otherwise she was unharmed. A Rook accompanied her.

“Alice,” Kairi greeted. Whatever thoughts had been plaguing her before seemed to disappear at the sight of her friend. “I’m glad you’re all right.”

Alice nodded. “Yes, though I can’t say the same for some of the others.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s war,” Lightning said. “People die.”

Kairi and Alice turned their attention to Lightning, and she was half expecting to be lectured about her insensitivity.

“...Yes, that’s right,” Alice said. “I knew this coming here, and my army knew it, too. More will die in the coming days.”

“We’ll get her,” Kairi said softly. “I promise you, we will. None of this will be in vain.”

“I know,” Alice said. “I know.”

They made camp away from the internecine in order to rest before the final push to the Red Queen’s castle. A third of the White Army had been lost to Caelix’s forces, and those remaining spoke in hushed tones and mourned their fallen countrymen. Lightning paid them no mind as she took a seat next to Kairi. The sun had not moved, frozen in eternal day. Still, Alice’s army stayed clear of the night squares; it was more difficult to see in darkness to keep watch.

“You’re right, you know,” Kairi said, hugging her knees. She’d had a chance to clean up a little once the fighting had died down.

“About what?”

“I’m not really a fighter. Not like you, at least.”

Lightning grunted in response. There was nothing to say to that indisputable fact.

“Where did you learn to fight like you do?”

Kairi seemed genuinely curious, but Lightning hesitated.

“...The military. I’ve been fighting most of my life.”

Bright blue eyes spared her a glance. “...I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

Kairi shook her head. “For dragging you into even more fighting.”

“Fighting itself isn’t bad. It’s what you fight for that makes a difference.”

“You’re fighting for Serah.”

Lightning shifted and brought her sword across her lap. Kairi smiled a little.

“She must be very special to you.”

“She’s my little sister. Of course she’s special.”

Kairi was silent for a moment, and Lightning began to clean her sword. Black taint washed away to reveal gleaming steel underneath.

“I wonder what he’s dreaming about, the boy I’m fighting for.”

“You don’t know?”

“I don’t even know his name. Isn’t that silly? I’m sure if he knew, he’d be so angry with me.” Kairi laughed a little.

“Why would you fight for someone you can’t even remember?” It came out sounding harsher than Lightning intended, and Kairi’s smile fell a little.

“...Just because I can’t remember him doesn’t mean he can’t remember me.”

Kairi was a strange one. She had this energy about her, an aura that never extinguished no matter what came at her. Even when Lightning found her hunched over that dying Dusk and Kairi had been lost, there was still something there, something that tethered her down. Unlike most people, her unfamiliarity was not her fear; they were distinct, Lightning realized. Kairi wasn’t afraid, she simply wasn’t used to this. There was no fixing what wasn’t broken.

“What if he’s not dreaming about you?”

“Then I guess I’d cease to exist,” Kairi said, eyes distant. “But...here I am.”

_Such faith._

Lightning couldn’t think of anything to say to that. Nothing she could say would make a difference, anyway.

_“But at the end of the day, the lie isn’t what matters; it’s what you do after you tell it.”_

Lightning blinked the memory away. “...I’ll take watch. Get some rest, kid.”

Kairi nodded. “Thanks, Lightning.”

The little princess rose and shuffled about the camp, settling into sleep within minutes. Lightning watched her for a bit, cracking her knuckles. Soon, she decided her sword wasn’t quite clean enough, and she began to rub it furiously with polish. Anything to get out the invisible blood stains.

* * *

 

Kairi veered to the left to avoid a swooping lance that would have cleaved her head in two. Caelix’s forces were concentrated around the perimeter of the Red Palace, and Heartless and Nobodies bolstered their ranks. Cutting through them was taking everything Alice’s White Army had.

Lightning fought close by, closer than she’d been in the last skirmish, but Kairi paid it no mind. Lightning, she’d quickly discovered, was the type to disclose information only when she was ready. There was no reasoning with her, generally. For now, Kairi appreciated the extra eyes watching her back as she hacked her way through Heartless and Nobodies to the perimeter wall.

Black liquid ran under her feet from murder holes in the wall’s break. Kairi barely had time to put two and two together before a firm hand on her elbow yanked her backwards. That was when the fire broke out, incinerating the black oil and anyone unfortunate enough to be within its reach. Red and White Pieces, as well as various Heartless and Nobodies alike, went up in flames. Kairi’s screams could not save them.

“Pay attention,” Lightning hissed. “You can’t just go in there and die, you know.”

Kairi wrenched her arm free. “So what, then? She’s murdering our allies down there!”

Lightning fixed her with an icy glare. “So deal with it and move on.”

“And what if I can’t?”

From their new post on a grassy knoll several hundred meters from the fighting, Kairi and Lightning were in no immediate danger. And that was just the problem. Kairi was no fighter, but she was also no coward. This was her fight, and she’d be damned if others died in vain for a cause that wasn’t theirs. It wasn’t right. Why couldn’t Lightning understand that?

Just as Lightning was about to respond, the space before them began to warp. Dark tendrils twisted among the light of day, vibrating and expanding. Kairi took a step back, recognizing the dark corridor from when Naminé had transported her. Somehow, she didn’t think Naminé was here now to pay her a visit.

A blond man emerged from the shadows, his icy blue eyes penetrating the shadows with a light of their own. He dusted himself off, as though the journey had been particularly harrowing. Lightning pointed her sword at him and held out a hand to shield Kairi.

“Who the hell are you?” she demanded.

The blond visitor chuckled. “And you call yourself a lady.”

Lightning lunged and rested her sword at the man’s throat. “I said no such thing.”

The man grinned, but it only sent chills up Kairi’s spine. He was dressed all in black, and his aura felt cold and dark. This man, whoever he was, was not an ally, of that Kairi was certain.

“Who are you?” she asked, lowering Lightning’s arm and stepping forward, her keyblade at the ready.

“Ah, Princess, I _would_ bow to you, but I’m a bit preoccupied, as you can see.”

Lightning hesitated, and Kairi peered at her.

“You didn’t answer our question,” Lightning said, refusing to lower her weapon. “And while you’re at it, where did you come from?”

The man put a hand on Lightning’s sword and forced her to lower it, gently. The blade cut his hand, and blood trickled down the edge of the blade to the hilt. “So many questions! Keep running your mouths and you’ll drown out what’s really important.”

Kairi watched the blood drip from his hand, entranced. He waved his uninjured hand before him and five cards appeared, floating. The backs shimmered like fish scales in the sun. Kairi reached for them, but stopped herself.

“Go ahead, Princess. Pick a card, any card.”

“Kairi,” Lightning warned.

“Pick, or I’ll pick for you.”

Not wanting to play games, Kairi chose the middle card and put an end to the shenanigan. It was blank. “There’s nothing on this.”

“Not anymore, now that you’ve chosen.”

Kairi glared at him. “Who are you, really?”

The man grinned. “I go by Luxord. But I daresay you ought to be more concerned with your comrades than with me.”

A screeching sound resounded from the Red Palace, and Lightning hissed, squinting to try to get a better look.

“What have you done?” Kairi demanded.

“So many questions. I wonder, how long do you think you can play this game when you don’t even remember what you’re fighting for?”

Luxord bared his teeth in a smirk that made Kairi want to put as much distance between them as she could.

“How do you...?”

“Tsk tsk tsk. What will he think when he realizes all his dreaming was just that? You’re cruel, just that like little witch.”

Another roar came from the Red Palace, and Alice’s White Army was already scrambling in the ensuing mayhem to regroup. Something was very wrong.

“Beware the Jabberwocky, my princess, the jaws that bite, the claws that snatch,” Luxord said, retreating to his dark corridor.

“Wait!” Kairi said, reaching for Luxord with her keyblade.

The dark portal closed before she could reach him, his grin fading into darkness. Kairi stared at the card he’d left behind. It was still blank, and nothing about it seemed amiss.

“Kairi, whatever’s going on sounds bad. Come on,” Lightning said, already heading toward the palace.

Kairi pocketed the card, deciding there would be time later to puzzle over it. Luxord’s cryptic words sung songs in her head, all a-spinny, as she bounded after her teammate.

_The jaws that bite, the claws that snatch._

* * *

 

Kairi remembered the stories her grandmother had told her as a child about princes and thieves, monsters and mortals. Light and dark. Dragons.

“Down!”

Kairi barely had time to heed Lightning’s warning before a giant scythed claw cleaved the cobblestone where Kairi had been standing just seconds ago. Above, Caelix’s laughter felt like pins and needles upon Kairi’s skin, a chill that had nothing to do with perpetual night surrounding the Red Palace.

“Stupid humans! You can’t _really_ expect to survive the Jabberwocky! He’s no ordinary beast; he’s your nightmares come to life, and you’re just scared little children to him!”

The Red Queen sat atop the Jabberwocky’s elongated neck, commanding its movements as her wild black hair flowed behind her like electric currents. The beast’s scales glistened in the starlight like swords melted down and given new form. It was almost cartoonish with its too-long neck and wide nostrils, but there was nothing funny about it.

The Jabberwocky roared and spit black acid. It hissed and smoked upon the Red Palace’s courtyard walls, burning through thick stone and steel. Kairi fell to the ground, only her keyblade breaking her fall. The Jabberwocky reared up on its hind legs to spew more acid, taking out several White Pieces in the process. On its belly, Kairi noticed an intricate heart emblem.

“A Heartless?” she said.

Lightning skidded to a halt beside her. “That thing’s a Heartless? It’s huge.”

“Yeah, a special one created for this world...”

“Whatever. Special or not, I’m taking this thing out. You stand back.”

“Huh? Lightning, wait!”

Lightning dashed away, her sword sparkling as she prepared to unleash a thunder spell. Caelix caught sight of her and directed the Jabberwocky. The beast lashed out with giant claws to snatch Lightning before she could cast her spell, but it was too slow.

“Die,” Lightning said quietly as she unleashed her magic.

Thunderbolts leaped from her sword and struck the Jabberwocky in the underbelly, illuminating its Heartless emblem. Blood seeped through its armored hide between shimmering scales. The light was hypnotizing in its destruction, but Caelix was not deterred. With an inhuman screech, she encouraged the Jabberwocky to gnash its oversized jaws at Lightning, ripping her stomach.

“No!”

Lightning’s blood splattered black under night’s velvet blanket, smearing the stone walls in wide smiles that seemed to laugh at them both. Dusks jumped in Kairi’s path but she dodged them, concerned only with her partner. _Her partner._ Lightning gasped and toppled to the ground in a tangle of bloody limbs. Caelix’s laughter rang in Kairi’s ears, the only sound above the Jabberwocky’s cry.

Kairi reached Lightning, who was breathing erratically and bleeding. She put her hands over Lightning’s wounds, desperate. She didn’t know anything about how to fix people! How could this happen? Especially to a strong warrior like Lightning...

“Kid, get out...”

“Shut _up_!” Kairi hissed.

Something in her pocket seared, almost painful, and Kairi retrieved the magic spell Alice had given her back at the White Palace. She didn’t know how to make it work, but she had to try.

_Be okay, please oh please! Just be okay!_

The gem gleamed in her hands and sank into her palms, which began to glow green. Kairi didn’t question it, too desperate and pressed for time. She laid her hands over Lightning’s wounds and the green light snaked through the lacerations. Lightning convulsed, and the light intensified. Before her eyes, Kairi watched as Lightning’s injuries sewed together as though time reversed and she hadn’t been injured at all. The healing made Kairi gasp for breath, like she’d just run for miles and miles without repose. Lightning cracked her eyes open.

“S-Serah?”

Kairi put a hand on her forehead. “Serah will be okay, I promise.”

White and Red Pieces crossed swords behind Kairi. Heartless and Nobodies made the battle all the more bloody, and Alice’s forces were falling back. With the Jabberwocky on their side, the Red Army seemed indestructible. Destroy the monster, destroy their morale.

_The jaws that bite, the claws that snatch._

Luxord’s words returned to Kairi, and they only fueled her anger. This thing was killing innocents left and right with no end in sight. Dragon-like, it felled knights and pawns alike. No more.

_No more._

What was she fighting for? For a boy she couldn’t remember? A fantasy? She had no answers, but maybe she would find them if she could defeat this monster. A lost boy, dreaming of her and waiting, waiting for something, _anything_ to change his fate. Kairi knew what it was like to wait for something she couldn’t even begin to understand.

_No more._

“Enough,” she said. The keyblade hummed against her palm. “ _Enough_!”

“Oh my, the tiny human’s giving me orders now,” Caelix said, her dark eyes wild. “I’m afraid I don’t respond well to authority.”

Kairi advanced on the fable-born beast. Its wings were too short for it to fly, though they flapped rapidly anyway. Red eyes zeroed in on her, assessing the threat. What could a princess do in a knight’s armor? All Kairi had ever done was wait.

_No more._

The keyblade was heavy in her hands, but the weight was welcome. Lightning propped herself up on her elbows, but it was too little too late. Kairi was already gone, racing up stone steps to the courtyard’s second floor.

“Caelix!” Kairi screamed, her keyblade above her head as she jumped off a balcony and fell toward the Jabberwocky.

Caelix was too slow. She tried to maneuver the Jabberwocky to defend in time, but there was no time. No more waiting. A burning heat from deep inside Kairi’s heart burst forth and enveloped her keyblade. White light, searing and scintillating, brought her to life. This power...it was like waking up after a long slumber. Death and rebirth in an endless cycle.

Brilliant light illuminated the keyblade, then Kairi, then the entire area. Kairi had to close her eyes to shield them, blind, and she swung hard and true. Flesh ripped, bone crunched, and blood ran warm and fast over her small hands. The Jabberwocky shrieked, a death rattle as its entire head and elongated neck tumbled to the ground, severed.

Kairi hit the ground hard. Her hip and left arm broke her fall, and she cried out in pain. White-hot light dominated her vision, so much that she could not see anything at all. Somewhere, something heavy fell to the ground and caused great tremors that sent her rolling onto her uninjured side. Gritting her teeth, Kairi tried to hold back the tears despite her immense pain.

“Kairi! Hold on!”

She was in and out. The pain swept her away, and the voices brought her back. It took forever for the white lights to fade, to the point that Kairi was wishing for darkness if only to relieve this blindness. Something felt cool and soothing along her left side, like the gentle ocean waves on the Destiny Islands beaches.

_“One day, we’ll leave this island. All three of us, together.”_

_“It’s my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me.”_

_“I’ll come back to you, I promise!”_

_I know you will..._

She reached for the shadows that smiled for her, laughing.

“Kairi!”

Kairi coughed and heaved in a breath. Alice hovered over her, worried.

“Oh my goodness! You’re okay!”

“...Just fine,” Kairi wheezed, trying to sit up. “What happened?”

The moon still shone overhead, but that meant nothing. It was always night in the dark squares, so there was no telling how much time had passed. Alice smiled, tears glistening her eyes.

“You did it,” she said, breathless. “You killed the Jabberwocky!”

Every cell in Kairi’s body screamed for rest. What had she done to end up like this? It felt like someone had tried to break her in two and gave up right at the last minute, but the damage was done.

“Oh...” Kairi rubbed her eyes, reminding herself that this was not the time or place to pass out. “Lightning... Is she okay?”

“She’s just fine,” Alice reassured her.

“Caelix?”

Alice hesitated but settled for a genuine smile, albeit small. “In custody. Kairi, we _won_.”

Shadow voices echoed in her head, just out of reach, but Kairi put them aside and smiled as best she could. “That’s great, Alice.”

* * *

 

Luxord watched the Jabberwocky dissolve under the glare of Kairi’s light. He had to look away, lest he, too, be blinded. The threat was no more, and Alice’s guards were quick to apprehend Caelix’s unconscious body in the mayhem. Luxord was almost disappointed, but not because he’d lost this round.

“Foolish move, Princess,” he said from the shadows. “You can’t win when your best hand is aces and eights.”

Luxord waved his hand and seven cards materialized. He chose the third from the left, a two-toned heart against a checkered background, and incinerated it with magic. The remaining six hovered before him, and he let his eyes rove over them slowly.

The Princesses of Heart were tethered to the Realm of Light, and yet it was all thanks to Sora that Organization XIII could harvest their Nobodies. With no memories of themselves or Sora now that Naminé was messing with his memory reconstruction, these special Nobodies had become a convenient tool to further Organization XIII’s goals. Of course, part and parcel to that agenda was the idea that the Nobodies would lock down their princess counterparts to prevent them from meddling with Kingdom Hearts again. The seventh princess was directly interfering and she had no idea.

“That was a grand failure,” Saïx said, emerging from a dark corridor behind his teammate.

“Not from where I’m standing,” Luxord said, not bothering to spare Saïx a glance. “Although, this does give me some ideas for the others.”

Saïx walked to the edge of the rampart upon which they stood and observed Alice healing Kairi. “We can’t kill her, but she’s causing trouble. Perhaps I’ll relieve her of her sword arm, slow her down a bit.”

Luxord laughed. “You’re so crass. Lighten up and see what’s really in front of us: Opportunity.”

“I could care less. If she threatens our plans for Kingdom Hearts, I _will_ remove her from the equation.”

Luxord dismissed his remaining six cards. “That’s your problem. You’re too narrowly focused that you’re missing out on what’s really going on. Well, I guess you never had much of a sense of humor. We can’t all be excellent company.”

“I’m not here to listen to your damn riddles, Luxord.”

“No, but you _are_ here.” Luxord grinned. “Intrigued? Would you like to know what happens next?”

“Xemnas knows what you’re up to. I’m here to ensure you don’t cause any trouble.”

The thinly veiled threat rolled off Luxord’s back. He may not have been as powerful as either Saïx or Xemnas, but he had an advantage that made him an invaluable member of the group.

“I’m a lucky guy with nothing but time.”

Saïx released a sharp breath, perhaps the closest Luxord had ever heard to a laugh coming from him. “Careful, your arrogance is showing.”

Luxord returned his attention to the scene unfolding below. Kairi was coming to, finally.

“You mistake me. I’m just _very_ excited. It’s my move now, after all.”

* * *

 

Hours flew by. It was incredible how time could virtually disappear in the midst of chaos. The Jabberwocky Heartless was dead, its artificial corpse decomposed in the courtyard, where only its engineered skeleton remained. The card Luxord had given her now bore a caricatured painting of this monster, and she understood. He was responsible for its existence. She tore up the card soon after, resisting the urge to burn the pieces.

Kairi approached the Jabberwocky’s skeleton, catching veins of light flickering among the cracks. Her light. She could hardly believe she’d done this, but she felt the effects easily enough. Lethargy, lassitude, lingering aching in her heart. She should have been pleased that she’d helped win this fight, but the throbbing in her heart only made her feel heavy. Older, somehow. There was no joy in this victory, but she couldn’t quite place why.

Lightning was helping to clear the fallen White Pieces out of the courtyard. They would be buried, heroes to their cause. Kairi hadn’t said a word to her since she’d healed her. What was there to say? Maybe later, when all this settled down. Caelix was still comatose and chained up. She wasn’t going anywhere. Alice had told Kairi to rest a little. Having used so much of her light would leave her dizzy for awhile. Kairi didn’t argue with that reasoning, but she still wanted to help out.

“Perhaps you could take a few Pawns and explore the castle?” Alice suggested. “I wonder if there’s anything here that could help us figure out how to rejoin Caelix and myself.”

And so, Kairi found herself wandering the Red Palace’s expansive halls. Not a soul remained, and the perpetual moon was the only light source through sky-high glass windows. Eerie, but oddly beautiful. Darkness is beautiful. Maybe that was why Riku was so enamored of it.

_“No, I won’t let you use me for this!”_

The last time she’d seen Riku, he was holding back the darkness inside him to save her. Ansem had tried to use his body to kill Kairi, but Riku fought for control and foiled his plans. It all happened so fast and Riku was gone before she could do anything, but that moment had stayed with Kairi all this time while she waited for him to return. It also gave her hope that Riku was okay. He could conquer his darkness no matter what, just as he’d conquered it to save her.

The Red Palace’s halls were long and dark, and no heat reached this place. Kairi shivered and rubbed her bare arms. She made a note to pick up something for the cold in case they she and Lightning travelled somewhere colder than this. The Pawns were checking rooms, each delving into his or her own search, so Kairi was undisturbed as she meandered the great keep. Movement in the shadows up ahead caught her eye, and she instinctively summoned her keyblade.

“Who’s there?” she called, squinting through the darkness.

More movement, an arm reaching for her. Kairi gasped. Someone was here, and she didn’t think they were a Heartless. Advancing, she tried to catch up to the figure, but it disappeared around a corner.

“Wait!”

Kairi broke into a run, ignoring the ache in her limbs, and rounded the corner. Dark, red tapestries lined the walls, and moonbeams made them glow. She put a hand on the wall, catching her breath. The figure, dressed in black and hooded, slowed to a halt at the end of the hallway before a door. It turned to look back at her, and Kairi immediately thought of Luxord. This person was dressed in a similar getup. Anger fueled her forward.

“Who are you?” she demanded, gripping her keyblade with both hands and preparing for a confrontation, should it come to that.

The hooded figure said nothing as it disappeared through the door, leaving it open like a silent invitation. Kairi paused before the door, wondering if this was a trap. Luxord was obviously the type to play cruel games, and caution was in order. Then again, this person was running from her, leading her. It didn’t make sense.

Cautious, she pulled the door open enough to step through. The room was small for what she imagined a castle to possess. Bookshelves lined three of the four walls, bursting to capacity. A wide oaken desk sat at the back of the room, covered in papers. More papers littered the floor, like a tornado had passed through here. The leftmost wall had glass cases filled with strange objects, but Kairi was more concerned with the hooded figure that had somehow vanished.

Looking around, there didn’t appear to be another exit. Puzzled, she approached the desk and perused some of the papers strewn across it. Most were written in languages she couldn’t read. Caelix didn’t strike Kairi as the type to pursue scholarly ambitions, and this didn’t add up.

“Kairi.”

That voice made Kairi spin around. Her sword hand trembled, and she looked around, searching. Whatever pain she’d been ignoring washed away with a surge of adrenaline and hope.

“Riku?” she breathed.

No one answered and no one was here, so she went to the door and looked down the hall again. Still nothing. But she could have sworn she’d heard his voice whispering to her. She’d even felt the ghost of warm breath against the shell of her ear, so close. The adrenaline faded and a familiar empty despair took its place. Riku wasn’t here, and she was still waiting for shadows.

A light _thud_ resounded from one of the nearby bookshelves, and Kairi noticed a book had fallen loose and landed on the floor. Suspicious, she approached and knelt down to leaf through it. Something fell from between the pages, and she picked up a torn page. The moonlight was meager, but it was enough to read by.

 _DiZ Report_ , it read.

Curious, Kairi approached the window above the glass cases housing strange artifacts to get better lighting. She began to read.

_The so-called “Organization XIII” continues to lose members. All those in Castle Oblivion have been eliminated, but they’re small fries. I am more troubled by the remaining members, none of whom have shown their faces here. My traitor apprentices... I should have known they would betray me, but I never dreamed it would come to this. No matter what action I take, they seem to be one step ahead of me..._

_It is no matter. Naminé is now in my possession, and I plan to use her for every drop of witchery she has. She says it will take time, but I cannot possibly trust someone who does not even understand such a human emotion to begin with. She’ll serve her purpose, and then I’ll discard her, as planned. So long as I have Riku working with me, I’m sure we will be victorious. And then where will you be, Xehanort?_

Kairi reread the note, incredulous. Riku’s name was here, and Naminé’s, too. Did this mean they were okay? There was no date, and Kairi had no idea what DiZ was, or who. And this Organization XIII was just as mysterious. Kairi could not begin to understand any of this, but she had a feeling it was all connected. Riku, Naminé, Luxord, Caelix... Like puzzle pieces, it would take time to fit them all together, and Kairi could not see the big picture right now.

At the very least, she had to have hope that Riku and Naminé were safe. The problem was figuring out for how long they would remain that way.

“I hate this,” Kairi said. “Not knowing. I hate it.”

All Kairi could do now was continue her journey, fighting to save a boy she couldn’t remember.

_“I’ll come back to you, I promise!”_

The voice was an echo in her head, an old song whose words she still knew even after years of neglect. She couldn’t place the voice, but she knew he was talking to her. The memory had come to her on a whim for no reason at all, and she couldn’t tell why it had eluded her until this point. This boy she was searching for... Maybe he hadn’t left off dreaming about her, after all.

Kairi pocketed the torn parchment to show Merlin later. Maybe he would be able to shed some light on the mysteries it contained. She was about to leave when a bright glint caught her eye. The glass case contained an array of exotic objects, some colorful and others unlike anything Kairi had ever seen in her life. A collection of some sort, clearly, although Kairi wasn’t sure what connected them all.

One of the objects, the one that had caught her eye, was a small mirror no bigger than her two hands. Curious, she unlatched the top of the case and retrieved the mirror. It was round and encased in silver. Black and white diamonds encrusted its border. This object was valuable, and yet it was here collecting dust.

Moonlight reflected off its surface, blinding instantaneous before fading to darkness again. A strange mirror, so different from the other knick knacks in the collection. Kairi touched its surface with a finger, and gasped when it rippled, like water.

“What the—”

The ripples intensified and swirled together to form a vortex. Mesmerized, Kairi could not look away. The looking glass pulled her heart into darkness, and she tumbled down and down even though she could still feel her physical form standing in the dark study.

Wind threatened to rip her apart, like so many hands clawing for attention. Kairi squeezed her eyes shut and wished for it all to stop.

It stopped.

The ground beneath her feet gave a little, soft. A gentle swishing sound drew her attention. Waves. Kairi’s vision cleared and she found herself on a dark shore. A black sun shone on the water’s surface, illuminated night. Strange rock formations stretched in the near distance, like falling liquid frozen in time. They undulated in rhythm with the waves lapping at her feet against dark sand.

“Who are you?”

Kairi whirled, her keyblade materializing without a second thought. A young woman stood a few feet away, surprise lighting up her blue eyes as she took in Kairi’s appearance. Kairi peered at the stranger. Her deep, blue eyes and matching hair were almost familiar, the way ghosts are familiar when they whisper from the shadows. The woman’s sleeves fluttered in a wind Kairi couldn’t feel.

“That keyblade...” the woman said, taking a step toward Kairi.

Kairi held out her blade, suspicious. “Stop. I know how to use this.”

The woman blinked, her expression unreadable. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anyone on these shores, much less a Keyblade Master.”

“I...” Kairi lowered her blade a little. “I’m no master.”

“Who are you?” the woman repeated her original question.

Something about her was so familiar, but Kairi couldn’t place her. Unarmed, she didn’t seem like much of a threat.

“I’m Kairi.”

The woman’s mouth dropped and she covered it with a hand. “Kairi...”

“Do I know you?” Kairi asked, lowering her keyblade to her hip.

“Oh my god,” the woman said. “Of course. I thought I recognized you, but it’s been so long.”

“...Who are you?” Kairi repeated the woman’s own question.

“I’m Aqua.” She approached Kairi slowly, her blue eyes glistening with unshed tears. “We’ve met before, many years ago.”

Kairi gasped. Her mind’s eye flew to bright colors, blooming flowers and shadowy creatures that threatened to take away all the color. And a girl, fearless and so strong, swooping in to protect her, no questions asked. Kairi remembered wishing more than anything that she could be like her.

“Aqua,” Kairi said, breathless. “I remember...”

“That keyblade. When you touched my keyblade, you must’ve... Oh god.”

Kairi lifted her keyblade to take a look at it. Even in this gloom, its colors still glowed, like true flowers basking in the sunlight.

“You performed a Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony,” Aqua continued. “That’s why it chose you. I had no idea.”

“Aqua,” Kairi said, stepping closer so they were only a couple feet apart. “You saved me back then. But what’re you doing here? What is this place?”

Aqua smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “This is the Realm of Darkness. I came here after... Well, it’s not important. I’m just so happy to see you’re okay.”

The Realm of Darkness? But how had she gotten here? “I was just in Looking Glass when I saw a strange mirror,” Kairi said, trailing off.

Could the mirror have been a gateway between worlds? She could feel that she wasn’t all here, that her body was still in that study in the Red Palace.

“Kairi, that keyblade,” Aqua said, disturbing her from her thoughts. “Do you know what it does?”

Kairi examined her weapon. “I know it’s saved my life more than once now.”

Aqua put a hand on the flower crown, and it glowed faintly under her touch. “This is the Destiny’s Embrace,” she explained. “Its power is to restore people’s fates to the right path, so they don’t go astray.”

“Restore fate? I don’t understand.”

“Our worlds are in constant upheaval. The battle between darkness and light has been waging for eons. Each has the capacity to alter destiny, one way or the other. Some people become blinded by light, and others fall into darkness,” Aqua explained. “But this keyblade restores hearts to their original state, even fractured hearts.”

_Fractured hearts..._

“Do you...” Kairi’s mind raced with the implications. “Do you think it could restore a heart’s true power? Like, if someone had lost her heart before, and that power was living separately from her.”

Aqua frowned. “I’m not sure exactly what you mean, but I think so. This keyblade has the power to reset fate. Your heart is pure, so it makes sense that it would choose you.”

Then that was it, all along. Kairi could restore Alice’s heart to its original destiny by merging her with Caelix’s body and soul. Kairi smiled a littled, a new hope surging through her. This was possible, and she could do it. _She could do it._

“I think I know what to do now,” Kairi said, meeting Aqua’s gaze.

Aqua returned the smile, but it was hollow. Kairi took her hand.

“Come on. Let’s get out of this place.”

Aqua broke the contact. “I...can’t.”

“What do you mean? Why not?”

Silence stretched, and the only sound that reached Kairi was that of the waves rushing the shore, so much like the Destiny Islands that she felt a little sad with nostalgia. The Realm of Darkness was a beautiful lie.

“A long time ago, I chose to come here to protect someone I love very much. I took his place so he could be saved.” Aqua flashed her a bright smile, but Kairi could see the tears glistening in Aqua’s eyes, refusing to fall. “It’s all right. I’m happy to wait.”

A wave of sadness washed over Kairi, like she’d heard this story before. Like she’d lived it before. Tears threatened to fall, but she fought them off. “Aqua...”

“You’re fighting, right? You’ve got something important to finish. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have Destiny’s Embrace with you. So go, finish your quest.”

Kairi dismissed her keyblade and took Aqua’s hands in hers, her eyes hard. “I won’t leave you here. You saved me once...”

_Twice._

Kairi shook her head. “I can’t just leave you here all alone!”

Aqua freed one of her hands and touched Kairi’s necklace, the same one she’d blessed so many years ago. “I knew it was fate that led me to you.”

Something tugged Kairi backwards, and she realized that Aqua was sending her away, back through the looking glass. This time, Kairi couldn’t stop her tears and she reached for Aqua.

“I’ll get you out of here somehow! I promise!”

Aqua smiled through her own tears. “I know you will.”

“Aqua!”

Kairi fell to her knees and cried out in pain. She was back in the Red Palace’s study, and the Realm of Darkness was behind her. But her tears fell freely, hot and sticky against her cheeks. She wiped them away with the back of her hand and pulled herself up. Summoning her keyblade— _Destiny’s Embrace_ —Kairi forced her breathing to even out.

“Thank you, Aqua.”

The looking glass she’d used to peer into the Realm of Darkness was cracked on the floor, but Kairi pocketed it before heading back to the group. Even broken, it was the only connection she had to Aqua.

* * *

 

The surviving Red Pieces were in chains and ready for transport back to the White Palace. Alice had given them a choice to renounce their old allegiance to Caelix and join her royal guard. They had until arriving back at the White Palace to decide, and from the looks of it Lightning was sure most, if not all, would end up choosing Alice in the end. Whatever worked, she supposed, but Lightning was less inclined to take chances with shaky loyalties. Still, this wasn’t her world or her war.

Kairi had been gone for awhile, but when she returned she looked like she’d fought another war all on her own. The White Army was gathered in a sunlit square just outside the Red Palace when Kairi rejoined them. Lightning hadn’t spoken to her at all since the girl had healed her fatal wounds. There had been no time, and now it just felt a little awkward.

But Kairi did not seem preoccupied with what had transpired between them. “Lightning, I figured it out. How to restore Caelix to Alice.”

“Oh, that’s great,” Lightning said, surprised. “That means we can get out of here, then.”

Kairi nodded. “Yeah. I just need to talk to Alice first. Come on.”

Lightning found herself following the younger girl, almost in a trance. Was that it? Were they just going to ignore what had happened? Maybe it was for the best. Lightning had never been a big talker and the idea of sharing “feelings” made her more than a little sick to her stomach. Then why did this feel off?

Kairi was explaining something to Alice about destiny and the keyblade and joining souls and hearts. White noise, as far as Lightning was concerned.

“So you think this will work?” Alice asked, shy.

“Yeah,” Kairi said, her gaze distant. “I know for a fact it will.”

“You seem pretty confident about that, kid,” Lightning said. “Something happen?”

Kairi met Lightning’s gaze for the first time since she’d healed her. “I’m confident.”

Lightning narrowed her eyes, suspicious, but Kairi continued explaining the process to Alice.

“We can do it as soon as we get back to the White Palace, if that’s okay with you,” Kairi said.

“Yes, perfect. Maybe Caelix will be awake by then, too, and I can speak with her.”

In a matter of hours, the group set off retracing their steps back to the White Palace. Alice had lost over half her forces in the battle, but they had won in the end. Perhaps it would be enough. Eventually, when they broke for the night to rest, Lightning approached Kairi, whom she found staring at a cracked mirror, her eyes faraway.

“You should get that fixed,” Lightning said, taking a seat next to Kairi. They were camping in a dark square, and a fire blazed before them for warmth and light.

“Yeah,” Kairi said. “Maybe Merlin can do something about it.”

Lightning frowned. “It’s not that big of a deal. You could just buy a new one.”

Kairi clutched the mirror to her chest. “No, this one’s fine.”

An uncomfortable silence stretched between the two women, one that Lightning felt and Kairi wasn’t breaking. She was no good at this, and she hated it. The only thing to do was to get it over with the only way she knew how.

“Listen, Kairi,” Lightning began, leaning her elbows on her knees and gazing at the flickering campfire. “I’m no good at this kind of thing, so I’ll say this once and only once.”

Kairi was silent, but Lightning could feel her eyes on her. Lightning rubbed her eyes and sighed. “Thanks...for saving my life back there. I should’ve died.”

“...You’re welcome,” Kairi said. “But it was really Alice who’s to thank. She gave me the Cure spell.”

Lightning shook her head. “No, Alice wasn’t there in the shit with me. You were. And... And I want to pay you back.”

“You don’t have to pay me back. That’s what partners are for—” She cut herself off. “I mean, not partners, of course, just, you know, we’re fighting on the same side, so...”

Kairi had made things even more uncomfortable, and Lightning itched to get up and walk away. She really regretted saying that now. “No, we... I mean, we are partners, you and me.” Lightning pulled one knee up to her chest, frowning. “We’re in this together, like you said. That...makes us partners, I guess.”

She wasn’t looking at Kairi, but the younger girl accidently smiled a true smile for the first time in weeks. “Lightning...”

_“Why ‘Lightning?’ What’s it mean to you?”_

Lightning finally turned to face Kairi. “But if you’re going to be my partner, you have to know how to fight properly or we’ll both end up dead. So from now on, I’ll train you.”

Kairi stared at her for a moment, shocked. “...You’d do that?”

Lightning frowned. “Obviously this isn’t going to be an easy quest. I... I almost died today, and if it weren’t for you... Anyway, the stronger you are the better chance we’ll have, and the sooner we can save Serah. I’m not asking.”

Kairi threw her arms around Lightning in a sudden hug, which the older woman had not been expecting. There was no one around to see them, no enemies. It was just the two of them, in darkness, with only each other in all the worlds. Lightning resisted the urge to sigh, but she didn’t push Kairi away.

“Thank you, Lightning,” Kairi said, her voice muffled against Lightning’s shoulder.

Lightning put a hand on Kairi’s back. “Don’t sweat it, kid.”

Kairi released her and smiled.

“Get some sleep. I’d say you’ve earned it by now,” Lightning said.

Kairi nodded. “Are you staying up?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, goodnight.”

Lightning watched her go and settle in for the night, thoughtful. Maybe this was all a lie and Kairi was chasing fireflies. Maybe nothing would come of it, and it would all be for naught.

_“If you work hard enough, you can make it true.”_

She hadn’t been able to get Hope’s words out of her head all day. And every time she looked at Kairi...

“Night, kid,” Lightning whispered to herself.

Maybe there was a chance for them, yet.

* * *

 

“Fuck you,” Caelix spat. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Alice ignored the language. “I’m afraid you’ve got no choice. You and I are one.”

“As if I’m one with the likes of _you_. You couldn’t even get me here on your own! Pathetic.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Lightning said. “She’s just a sore loser with no other avenue but to piss us off. What a sad predicament.”

Caelix fixed Lightning with a poisonous look that made Kairi want to look away. There was so much anger there, so much hatred. How had it come to this?

They were back at the White Palace in an outdoor courtyard enjoying the warm sunlight. Caelix was chained to a wall, her red gown in tatters. All around, flowers bloomed bright and happy. There was little to be happy about, however, as far as Kairi was concerned.

“That’s rich. I hope you’re all happy. Not like a lifeless shell like me deserves to live anyway, right? I don’t even have a heart. I’m just...empty.”

Kairi watched the Nobody, troubled. Caelix was the enemy, true, but the way she was so defeated like this, so bitter... It wasn’t right.

But what could she do?

“You’re not empty,” Alice said, touching a hand to where Caelix’s heart would have been if she had one. “You’ve got me.”

Caelix spat in Alice’s face, and Bishop smacked her hard in the jaw with the hilt of his sword. Red spittle dripped from Caelix’s lips, and her jaw hung at an unnatural angle, broken.

“Bishop!” Alice cried, wiping the saliva off her cheek with a sleeve.

“How dare you speak to Her Majesty in such a manner. You’re not even real, you worthless trash. Barely even a shadow.”

Caelix could no longer speak with her jaw broken, so she settled for a nasty glare. Kairi found no words to remedy the situation, but she felt like she’d been the one to slap Caelix in her complacent silence. Lightning’s hand on her shoulder brought her back to reality, and she pushed the feeling away.

“All right,” Kairi said. “I’ll merge you with Caelix and you’ll be whole again, Alice.”

Alice nodded, her expression unreadable, and she took her place across from Caelix. Kairi moved to stand behind Caelix and summoned Destiny’s Embrace. Taking a deep breath, she thought of Aqua all alone on the shores of the Realm of Darkness.

 _I_ will _save you. And him._

With this thought in mind, Kairi plunged her keyblade through Caelix’s chest and into Alice’s heart beyond. Caelix let out an inhuman scream, and Alice trembled in place. White veins of light snaked all over Caelix’s body, scorching and dripping light. Her eyes rolled back in her head until they, too, were overcome by light. Blinding, it consumed her in flameless conflagration and fell upon the Destiny’s Embrace. Kairi gripped the keyblade with both hands and turned it, locking Alice’s heart in the process. The light pooled into Alice, sealed away along with Caelix’s screams until there was nothing.

“Your Majesty!”

Alice nearly fell over, but a Knight caught her at the last minute. Her blonde hair fell about her pretty face, a bit frazzled. She gripped her heart with a hand and breathed deeply.

“Alice?” Kairi asked, tightening her grip on the keyblade in case something had gone wrong.

Alice blinked and met Kairi’s gaze, blue on blue. She smiled, breathing heavily. “I’m okay,” she said. “I’m me again.”

Alice’s Pieces rejoiced, and the first Pawn Kairi had met took her hand. “Thank you, Princess Kairi! You saved us all!”

Alice laughed and hugged her Pieces, finally whole again and comfortable in the knowledge that they’d found peace. Looking Glass was safe once more.

“I hate to interrupt, but it’s time to get what we came for,” Lightning said.

Alice got her Pieces to calm down and faced Kairi. “You’re absolutely right. I can’t thank you enough, so the least I can do is give you the power you came here to retrieve.”

Alice touched the flower crown on Kairi’s keyblade, and Kairi felt a surge of energy. Alice’s aura glowed blue and bright, illuminating the Destiny’s Embrace and mingling with Kairi’s own power. It was over in seconds, but Kairi could feel the effects. She felt stronger.

“That should do it,” Alice said.

“Thanks, Alice,” Kairi said, dismissing her weapon.

Alice shook her head. “It’s me who should be thanking you. I think I can fix this place now, restore the original Wonderland to what it was. I can hardly believe it, but I miss the place.”

Kairi’s eyes softened. “I’m sure you can.”

Kairi and Lightning stayed the night and departed in the morning, early. Rested and healed (and now equipped with sturdy chain mail over her regular clothing), Kairi summoned a light corridor to take Lightning and her to the next world.

Alice saw them off with her White King, a young man with kind eyes that saw only Alice. Kairi could almost feel their love just looking at them. It made her happy to see such beauty, especially for such a dear friend as Alice, but there was a part of her that felt empty at the sight, like there was something missing.

_“I’ll come back to you, I promise!”_

“Ready to go, kid?” Lightning asked.

Kairi turned to Lightning, who was waiting for her at the entrance to the light vortex. In many ways, their journey was only just beginning. Kairi still couldn’t remember the boy for whom she risked her life, but that didn’t bother her anymore.

He’d promised to come back to her, and that was good enough for her.

“Yeah,” Kairi said. “Let’s go.”

Alice waved them off, and the partners stepped into the light. Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For clarity, Kairi’s memories of Sora specifically are missing, but her memories of everything else are still intact. For example, she remembers the worlds she saw when her heart was in Sora’s body and all the people she met, but she can’t make the connection to Sora.


	3. The Kingdom of Morning

Crusade, Chapter 3 - The Kingdom of Morning  
Disclaimer: I don’t own Kingdom Hearts.

 _“In the desert_  
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,  
Who, squatting upon the ground,  
Held his heart in his hands,  
And ate of it.  
I said, ‘Is it good, friend?’  
‘It is bitter—bitter,’ he answered,  
‘But I like it  
Because it is bitter,  
And because it is my heart.”

* * *

 

“Again.”

Lightning pulled her sword from the earth, turning grass and soil, and lunged at Kairi. The keyblade sparked as it caught Lightning’s sword in a strong parry, and Kairi sidestepped. Good form, just like Lightning had taught her. Lightning released a sharp breath and spun to her left, catching Kairi in a blind spot with an elbow to the back. Kairi stumbled to the ground but rolled into a crouched position, panting.

“Isn’t that kind of playing dirty?” Kairi said, wiping her mouth and standing.

“The Heartless play dirty. There’s no shame in using whatever means necessary when your life’s on the line.”

They had arrived in this new world through the light corridor, but there seemed to be nothing here but endless stretches of grassy meadows and rolling hills. They began to wander, and Lightning started training Kairi as she’d said she would. Days turned into weeks, and the pair had encountered not even a lowly Shadow. This world was empty and silent.

“Not that it’ll do you much good in this world. Seems like we missed the party,” Lightning went on.

Kairi got that faraway look she got when she was about to say something weird. The girl was odd, no doubt about it, and she acted according to her heart and feelings.

“No, I felt Aurora’s light here when we landed, somewhere. This is definitely where we need to be.”

_Totally weird._

“Whatever you say, kid. But we’re not gaining much wandering around in the middle of nowhere.”

“Hey, I _am_ getting stronger.”

“You’ve got a long way to go.”

“Oh, really?”

Lightning barely had time to react when Kairi flung her keyblade and clocked her in the wrist. She dropped her sword. Lightning scowled and cast a Thunder spell, singing the ground at Kairi’s feet and leaving a smoking, charred crater where the girl had been standing only seconds ago.

“Playing dirty, right,” Kairi said, dusting herself off.

“You should never throw your weapon away.” Lightning reached for the keyblade to toss it back to Kairi, but the weapon vanished on contact and reappeared in Kairi’s hand.

_Even weirder._

“I’ll remember that.”

Sunlight overhead reflected off her chainmail, now chinked in places from the abuse she took in training. They had been roughing it since arriving in this world, sleeping under the stars and hunting for food. Kairi never complained, but even Lightning was starting to wish for a bath and a roof over their heads, if only as a break from this vast monotony. Last night it had rained, which was less than pleasant. But neither Kairi nor Lightning had ever been to this world, so they didn’t know where to go to get to the Princess of Heart living here.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you about your magic, by the way. Did Merlin teach you?”

Kairi’s words pulled Lightning from her thoughts. Nearby, the ground was still smoking with the after effects of the Thunder spell she’d used earlier. Questions... This one seemed innocent enough, but Lightning still stiffened.

“No one taught me. I just know it.”

“So, your world has magic, too.”

She remembered a crystalline sea, its waves stopped mid-break, sparkling with the light of infinite aurora borealis. This katabatik nightmare began with a fall to that frozen sea that should have killed Lightning, killed all of them if not for _magic_.

“More like curses.”

Kairi studied her, more curious than suspicious. “Call it a curse if you like, but your curse has saved us more times than I can count.”

She could have dropped it. There was no joy in revisiting these memories, but like a disease there was no shaking them once they caught hold of her. Lightning thought of Serah, of the unlikely people she’d met on the way to saving Serah. All for naught. Serah was still frozen, and Lightning had done all she could. With her world safe but in shambles, the only option was to seek answers elsewhere. Everyone else had returned to normal except Serah. Except her.

Kairi waited patiently, but she didn’t turn away. Lightning let her eyes fall as the memories washed over her. All stories had an ending, but not all of them were happy. Perhaps if Kairi could understand that, she could realize that not everyone could be saved.

“...In my world, there are divine beings known as fal’Cie. They choose people to carry out a Focus task. Those chosen ones are known as l’Cie, and they acquire special powers to help them accomplish their Focus.”

Lightning paused and put a hand over her heart. It beat like any other heart, but she could picture the brand there, its eye burned shut, frozen in time.

“If l’Cie don’t fulfill their Focus, they turn into Cieth, soulless creatures of darkness, sort of like your Nobodies. But if they do succeed, their fate’s even worse.”

“...You’re one of those l’Cie, aren’t you?”

Lightning met Kairi’s eyes. There was no hatred there, no fear. Nothing like the citizens of her home world who recoiled at the mere mention of the hated l’Cie. People feared what they did not understand, but not this kid.

“But if you accomplish your Focus it can’t be that bad. There must be a way out of the curse.”

Silly little princess stuck in a fairytale. _No wonder._

“l’Cie who complete their Focus gain eternal life, but they turn to crystal. They live forever...but they’re dead to the world.”

It was fascinating watching the light in Kairi’s eyes change as understanding dawned. Fear, confusion, anger. This language was familiar to Lightning; it had been for most of her life, especially recently. But when Kairi set her jaw and pointed Destiny’s Embrace directly over Lightning’s heart, the rules changed and words were strangers.

“Curses can be broken. We’ll save Serah.”

In all their time together, Lightning had watched this skinny little girl face hordes of Heartless despite impossible odds, slay a mythical monster with the power of her will and a handful of luck, and restore someone’s broken heart. It was on par with the miracles and malevolence Lightning had seen in her world, but Kairi didn’t seem like the type to give up. Lightning pushed her hard in their training, but she always got back up, even when she knew Lightning would just knock her down again. Kairi wasn’t anything special.

_Neither was he._

“Lightning?”

Lightning pushed those thoughts away. This wasn’t her home world, and Hope wasn’t here no matter how much she felt the ghost of him whenever she looked at Kairi. But she wasn’t alone.

“Again,” Lightning said, readying her sword. “Whenever we find this Aurora, you have to be ready not to die right away.”

Kairi smiled. “Yeah, okay.”

They fought until nightfall. Cursed or not, at least this much Lightning could do for the ones she loved.

* * *

 

The sea at dusk was a welcome sight after so much rolling greenery. The sand was damp and gave under Kairi’s footsteps. She slipped off her shoes and let the cool water lap at her toes, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

She could almost pretend she was back on the Islands, waiting. Waiting for Riku and the boy she couldn’t remember. But this wasn’t the Destiny Islands. No seagulls cooed here, and the scent was crisp, not salty. It was different. She wasn’t waiting any longer.

“A little cold for a swim,” Lightning said somewhere behind her.

Kairi opened her eyes and gazed at the vast seascape, sparkling with the last rays of the setting sun. “Mm.”

Minutes passed. The sun set and darkness settled over the world. The partners lingered a little longer in silence. Just as Kairi slipped her shoes back on, the sea lit up like slow fireworks. She gasped, and Lightning drew up beside her. Millions of tiny, blue lights shimmered on the water’s surface as far as the eye could see. The waves lapping at their feet twinkled like liquid light. It was so beautiful that Kairi could hardly believe it was real.

“Wow,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Lightning remained silent, observing the seascape. “It’s almost a perfect reflection of the night sky.”

Kairi looked up and sure enough, it was almost impossible to find the horizon separating sea and sky. “What is it?”

“Phosphorescence. Microscopic creatures that emit light. But I’ve never seen so many like this before. It’s almost like—”

“—magic?” Kairi finished.

She stole a glance at Lightning, thinking. It was amazing that the older woman had opened up to her, even just a little, but she was obviously troubled by her past. It was hard seeing Lightning so upset, so lost. The only consolation was that one day, they would wake up Serah. Kairi was confident she could do it once she had all the Princesses of Heart’s powers. Until then, Lightning would have to keep fighting.

“...Yeah,” Lightning said. “I guess it is.”

They walked along the beach, content in the illuminated darkness. There had been no sign of Heartless or Nobodies since they’d arrived. While vigilant, Kairi didn’t think they’d have any problems tonight, like every other night.

Soon, they came upon the first human settlement they’d seen since arriving in this world and Kairi squealed in delight.

“I was beginning to think we were wandering a wasteland,” Lightning said, stepping in front of Kairi and drawing her sword, just in case.

“Hey, maybe someone will have a spare room for us to stay the night. Let’s go see!”

They wandered closer to the town, and Kairi noticed that there were no lights coming from the houses. It wasn’t very late despite the darkness, so it couldn’t be that everyone was already asleep.

“Kairi.”

Lightning put an arm out to block Kairi’s path, her eyes straining through the gloom to see better. Gooseflesh prickled on Kairi’s skin despite the warm summer air. Something wasn’t right, but she couldn’t figure out what. Lightning had picked up on it, too. Silence and sea breeze were their only companions.

Kairi summoned her keyblade, blue eyes scanning left and right for movement, anything at all. “I don’t see anything from here.”

“Stay close.”

The pair crept toward the village, barely breathing in their discretion. The main street was nothing more than a packed dirt road, hard with age and use. They walked slowly, weapons loose in their hands and ready to defend at a moment’s notice. There was no movement, no jumpy shadows waiting to sink their teeth into them. And still, the chill buzzed upon Kairi’s skin, electric.

“It smells like death here,” Lightning said.

Kairi hated that she knew what Lightning meant, and she smelled it, too. Rancid, like old blood and sewer runoff, acrid on the back of her tongue.

“Hey...”

Kairi paused, having noticed something out of the ordinary near a building at the end of the block. It was a strange shape, pointy and lumpy at the same time, and perfectly still. In the darkness, it was impossible to discern from a distance.

“I see it. Let’s go.”

They separated and gave the strange figure a wide berth, weapons aimed and ready. The half moon overhead followed them, and as Kairi drew nearer its light reflected off the shadowy figure. What she saw made her quake in fear.

“Oh my god.”

Lightning circled it, eyes narrowed and calculating. She was in that machine mode she got whenever they had to deal with anything unpleasant. Kairi had no such default function, and she could only stare in horror.

A young man stood before them, his body twisted as though he’d frozen in the middle of a turn. His skin was ashen, almost translucent, and his dark eyes were wide and glassy. Thick, black vines coiled around him, their thorns piercing his skin like so many daggers. Old blood dripped from his thighs, his wrists, his chest and neck. One protruded from his mouth, a spiny serpent with no end and no beginning. Flower buds, some closed and some mid bloom, deep crimson in color, decorated the vile plants.

Kairi covered her mouth and nose to block out the stench, but it was too late. She doubled over and wretched, her stomach spasming with pain and nausea. The taste of bile was sweet and sour on her tongue, and just the thought of it threatened to draw up more. Steadying herself with a hand on the ground, Kairi shuddered and coughed. Panting, she peered at their newest companion from behind unwashed bangs. This man looked like he was screaming, but all that came out was the thorny rose vine, too thick around to fit a normal mouth.

“He’s alive,” Lightning said, feeling for a pulse. She had said nothing while Kairi emptied her stomach, and she said nothing about it now.

Kairi wiped the tears from her eyes, an involuntary response to her vomiting, and stood up straight to regain her bearings. “Alive? _Look_ at him.”

Lightning didn’t respond as she continued her inspection with mechanical precision. She touched one of the blooming roses, and her fingers came away wet. “...I think the vines are draining his blood.”

The open flowers dripped dark liquid onto the ground, and when Kairi looked down she could make out small puddles forming at the man’s feet. The sight of his blood pooling under the moonlight sobered her.

“We have to help him,” she said.

Before Lightning could respond, Kairi was already poking at the thorny vines, searching for something that could help them. She gasped when one squirmed under her touch. A low, guttural moan emanated from the imprisoned man’s gaping maw, and his eyes swiveled around to catch Kairi’s gaze. Her heart must have stopped in those few moments. It was like looking into a great crevasse, bottomless and leading somewhere _else_. This man was barely human anymore, and he suffered. Kairi’s hands shook, and her keyblade rattled at her hip.

Lightning hissed. “I think we’ve got company.”

The half moon above offered a decent light source, but night had fallen deep and hard by now. Oily shadows hid night terrors seemingly at every corner. The man Kairi and Lightning had found moaned, as if sensing the approaching danger.

Or calling it.

“Incoming, kid.”

Kairi did not need to be told twice. She held out her keyblade, ready to strike. That modest streak of confidence faltered, however, when a small army of Nobodies converged from the north. Their clunking feet created little tremors with every step.

_Not feet..._

Their arms were longer than their bodies, and their legs dangled like a queer self-contained swing set. Kairi gritted her teeth. These were Nobodies, no mistaking it, but they were a different breed than Dusks.

Lightning wasted no time in charging the nearest one. As though taken by surprise, the Nobodies lurched. Kairi didn’t stop to dwell on it and lunged at another Nobody. Her keyblade hit and rattled her bones as it ricocheted. Grunting in pain, Kairi twisted to regain her balance. The Nobody she’d attacked had transformed its shape, much to her shock. Its body had folded in on itself and reshaped into a hexagonal barrier. A shield to block her attack.

Lightning was not much better off. The Nobody she faced had become a giant lance that sliced air and earth in an effort to cleave its target. Kairi blinked away the shell shock and searched for an opening. The six or seven Nobodies that had gathered all began to contort, twisting their forms to attack. There was nothing to do but to be quicker.

Gripping the keyblade with both hands, Kairi rushed at a Nobody mid-transformation and struck it with all her might. It careened into the one that had transformed into a shield, cracking its shell on impact. Kairi followed it and jammed the crown of her blade through the half evolved Nobody to pierce the hard shield below. Inhuman screams rang in her ears as their black blood boiled around her keyblade. She bit her tongue to keep from recoiling from the pungent odor, vile and venomous.

Nearby, Lightning had felled one Nobody with a Thunder spell and now crossed blades with the one that had transformed into a lance before. The sight would have been comical, a young woman trading blows with a sentient blade, but Kairi was more concerned with the remaining Nobodies. They fell without too much effort, and Kairi wondered if they were small fries. And if so, where were the bigger fish?

Just as she turned her attention to one of the remaining Nobodies attempting to intervene in Lightning’s fight, Kairi heard moaning somewhere behind her. Alarmed, she turned back and caught a glimpse of the man upon whom they’d stumbled earlier contort at an unnatural angle.

Kairi opened her mouth in a silent scream as she watched the man’s neck snap forward more than forty-five degrees. A broken vertebra protruded from the base of his neck, but there was no blood. At the thought, her eyes travelled to the engorged vines entrapping him, which pulsed with a heartbeat of their own. If she hadn’t gone white with fear and already emptied her stomach earlier, Kairi was sure she’d be on the ground seeing stars.

“Lightning,” she croaked.

Lightning was too busy fending off the rest of the Nobodies to hear her.

Petrified to the spot, Kairi could not even summon the energy to quake as she watched what had once been an innocent man rip and fold before her eyes like the pieces of a patchwork doll. His thorny shackles squeezed tighter and tighter until they began to leak. Blood, rivers of it, spurted from the vine’s blooming roses and accumulated on the ground. The man could no longer scream, so all Kairi could hear was the _schloop, schloop, schloop_ ing of his life energy washing away and coalescing.

It moved.

Kairi gasped as a dark figure rose from the puddle, so dark she could barely tell it from the inky night sky all around it. Bubbling and doubled over, it struggled for a moment until something flashed in the moonlight and pierced the ground. A broadsword. The creature used it to pull itself out of the blood and proceeded to hover. Finally, it turned its yellow eyes on Kairi.

Meanwhile, the drained thorns wrapped tighter around the dead man’s husk of a body. His arms, pale from a total lack of blood, grew to an impossible length and sprouted razor-sharp talons. His feet burst from his shoes and tore into the earth with nails thicker around than Kairi’s wrist. The vines, red with proffered blood, draped across broad, armored shoulders and torso. Wings, like ultra-thin razors, ruptured the man’s back and carried him skyward. And when he popped his head back in place, he was no longer a man. The crevasse looked deep into Kairi and it roared a dragon’s roar, hollow and deafening all at once. A death knell.

“What the hell?” Lightning had heard the roar and broke away from the animated lance to join Kairi.

Lightning’s words were enough to shake Kairi from her trance, the horror of what she’d just witnessed dying down out of sheer necessity and an adrenaline high that made her feel light enough to fall into the sky above.

“Where did those things come from?” Lightning demanded.

“H-He turned into them. A Heartless and a Nobody.”

Speaking the words awakened something in the partners’ new foes, and they came to life. The Heartless lunged, saber aiming to decapitate, and Lightning and Kairi were forced to split apart to avoid the blow. Kairi barrel-rolled to the left and emerged on her hands and knees, one hand digging into the sandy earth around the hilt of her keyblade. In the distraction, the dragon-like Nobody sped not toward Lightning and her, but to the flying-lance Nobody. It grasped the lance and brandished it, roaring again.

“Oh my god,” Kairi said, her voice shaking.

The monster had been a man in agony only minutes ago.

Lightning was on her feet and already charging the high-powered Nobody, her sword crackling with Thunder magic. Kairi looked around for the Heartless, but to her horror she could not locate it. Only its fearsome sword remained wedged in the ground. Will-o-wisps danced about it, a self-contained seance to wake dead things and demons. Trying not to panic, she searched around for any sign of the moving shadow, knowing all too well what could happen if it found her first.

The night sky offered too little light despite the fat half moon, like something was sucking it dry of its radiance. Kairi’s breath was hot on her lips as she squinted through the darkness. A chill up her spine was her only warning, and she lost all rational thought as the weeks of training she’d put in with Lightning took over.

Springing forward, she used the momentum to spin in mid-air and slash the space that had been directly behind her. A shriek, and a hand made of ghost fire split in half under the arc of Kairi’s blade. Yellow eyes appeared inches from her own, mirrors reflecting nothing and stealing her sight. She landed hard on her side, but the pain was nothing under the heady rush of adrenaline and fear.

The Heartless had assumed its ghastly shape and reclaimed its weapon, which it now hefted over its incorporeal shoulder. Kairi had no time to compose herself before it lunged, its maw wide in a silent scream. She put up her keyblade to catch the Heartless’s downward cleave. It sparked against the length of her weapon, and Kairi staggered as the Heartless attempted to push her down to her knees. Her arms shook, but faltering now would mean certain death.

“Aaagh!”

Lightning crashed into the wall of a nearby dwelling, its wooden paneling splintering under the force of her landing. Kairi gasped, and in the distraction she lost control of her keyblade. It was enough for the Heartless to knock her backward, slashing her thigh to the bone. Kairi screamed and rolled to the side on instinct, and just in time—the Heartless’s sword smashed the ground where she’d been standing before.

Breathing fast through her nose, Kairi blinked back tears and tried to stand on her good leg, the one that wasn’t raining a river of blood at her feet. There was no time.

“Lightning!” she cried out.

The dragon-like Nobody Lightning had been fighting advanced and began to circle Kairi opposite its Heartless counterpart.

“Damnit,” Lightning said, drawing up to Kairi and breathing heavily. Blood dripped down her forehead from a head injury, and Kairi forgot her own pain for a moment.

“You’re hurt,” Kairi said.

“I’m not dead. Stay sharp, kid.”

Lightning’s voice shook, and Kairi had to wonder how strong her conviction was. This was a disaster. These enemies were far stronger than the ones they’d faced in Looking Glass. Panic replaced adrenaline, and with it came a rush of fear and pain from Kairi’s physical injuries. Their enemies seemed unbeatable.

The Nobody roared and charged for Kairi. She jumped to meet its deadly lance in spite of her injuries, but Lightning rammed it from its blind spot. The creature swiped at her with a claw, rending her arm with red ribbons of blood.

“No!”

Lightning went down and struggled to pull herself up. The Nobody took to the sky again and positioned its lance for the killing blow. The Heartless kept its eyes on Kairi, and she was sure it would attack at any moment.

This was not how it would end. Just as she’d beaten the Jabberwocky, Kairi stubbornly resolved to beat these lesser threats. They were nothing compared to that beast. _Nothing._

“Enough!”

Raising her keyblade, Kairi called upon the light in her heart. It burned, like every vein in her body was on fire and turning to ash with each breath she took, but she didn’t care. This was the only way. A bright light shot from the end of the keyblade and fanned out around Kairi and Lightning. The Nobody and Heartless screeched, but they could not penetrate the barrier. Hissing, they attempted to flee, but Kairi had other plans. With a battle cry, she pushed with everything she had. The light caught up to the fleeing foes, trapping them in its searing heat. They cried out as it infected their undead bodies, creeping through their veins like a fast-working toxin. The Nobody fell from the sky and clawed its way forward on crumbling claws, bleeding black and steaming. The Heartless smoked as though on fire, and it dropped its broadsword.

“Kairi,” Lightning said, squinting and shielding her eyes from the blinding light.

But Kairi couldn’t hear her. All she could hear were the blood-curdling screams of her dying enemies disintegrating under the force of her light. The Heartless dissolved into nothing with a burst of white fire, and the Nobody finally fell still. It lay in a stinking ruin of its own congealing blood and misshapen limbs. It had died in agony.

The light disappeared with a brilliant flash, and Kairi fell to the ground. Darkness clouded her vision, and somewhere nearby Lightning was shaking her, asking her to wake up. Sleep was more appealing, though. At least Lightning was okay. At least Kairi could do this much.

Just before the world faded, Kairi noticed three bright lights circling Lightning and her. Red and green and blue, like a baby’s crib charm. They lulled her to sleep with their swaying, and even Lightning’s voice could not bring her out of it.

She was out cold.

* * *

 

“...so glad we found you.”

“If only we’d arrived sooner! You poor dears.”

“Well I think you should be more careful. It’s not safe to go outside at night these days.”

Unfamiliar voices echoed in Kairi’s head, like the remnants of a forgotten dream. She was falling in a dark place, but it wasn’t cold. Nearby, fire crepitated and emitted warmth, but she was blind to it.

“Someone should have told that guy in the vines.”

Lightning’s voice reached Kairi, and she stirred. The world came up to meet her, and Kairi jerked awake. Far from falling, however, she was lying in bed next to a roaring hearth. The room was a one-room cottage from the looks of it. The kitchen, living room, and bedroom were all cramped into one cozy space. Gasping for air, Kairi put a hand over her heart. Still beating.

_Still here._

“Kairi,” Lightning said, peering at her.

“Hey, you’re okay.”

Lightning snorted. “Worry about yourself a little.”

Kairi noticed Lightning’s arm and the bleeding gashes that were no longer there. “You’re healed. But how?”

“So’re you, kid.”

Sure enough, Kairi pulled her knees to her chest and noticed her injuries were completely healed.

“You can thank them.”

Three short women stood to the side behind Lightning. Red, green, and blue, just like the lights Kairi had seen just before she’d passed out.

“Oh, thank you,” Kairi said, pushing the covers off herself and swinging her feet over the edge of the bed to stand. “Who are you?”

The red-clad woman stepped forward. “Hello, dear. I’m so happy to see you’re well again. I’m Flora, and this is Fauna and Merryweather.” She indicated the women in green and in blue, respectively.

“Apparently, they’re fairies,” Lightning said, hiding a tick of amusement that Kairi chose to ignore for now.

“Wow, real fairies?”

“Of course we’re real!” Merryweather said, stepping forward and waving her wand. “You’re the one who’s not from around here, Missy.”

“Merryweather!” Flora said, frowning. “That is no way to talk to our guests!”

“Girls, girls!” Fauna stepped in between the squabbling fairies. “Please don’t fight. We have more important matters to discuss.”

Flora gasped. “Quite right, we do!”

Merryweather scowled and crossed her arms, but she obeyed and ceased bickering.

“You’re a Princess of Heart, aren’t you?” Flora asked.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Kairi said. “How could you tell?”

“Your heart is pure, child,” Flora said, smiling shyly. “Just like Princess Aurora’s.”

“Hey, isn’t that the one we have to find?” Lightning asked. “Do you know where she is?”

“Well, yes, Aurora’s here, but...”

“But she’s trapped!” Merryweather said. She shed blue fairy dust in her excitement. “We’ve got to help her!”

Kairi rose from the bed. It seemed someone had removed her chainmail and shoes, and the dirt floor was cool beneath her toes. “Lightning and I are here looking for Aurora. If she’s in trouble, maybe we can help. Tell us everything, please.”

Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather shared a heavy look. There was fear there.

“Well?” Lightning asked.

Flora sighed. “Ever since Aurora returned to us from Maleficent’s clutches, things haven’t been quite right here. A plague descended on our world, a horrible affliction from which none were safe. We only escaped because of our magic, but...”

“Yeah, we saw it. Those thorns killed a man in front of us. It was a vile way to go,” Lightning said.

“Those vines ate his heart,” Kairi said, remembering. “They turned him into a Nobody...and a Heartless.”

“They didn’t look like the ones we’ve been fighting,” Lightning said, peering at the three fairies. “They were a hell of a lot stronger.”

“Yes,” Fauna said sadly. “The Nobody you faced is called a Dragoon. It’s a very high-level Nobody that we’ve seen appear in this world only recently. It commands the lesser Dusks and Creepers.”

“And the Heartless was an Invisible. They’re awful! They disappear and cut down people from the shadows, like ghosts. Ooooh, I can’t stand them!” Merryweather balled her small fists and scrunched up her face.

“We almost didn’t survive them,” Kairi said, ashamed. Her clothes and Lightning’s were worse for wear even though their wounds had been healed. She still felt the sting of failure, like she’d cheated death instead of beating it fair and square.

“But we did. That’s all that matters,” Lightning said. She had her arms crossed as she leaned against the right-most wall of the small cottage near the fire.

“Yes and no,” Fauna said. “It’s good that you overcame them, but such a pyrrhic victory comes with consequences.”

“What do you mean?” Lightning asked.

Kairi stared at her hands. She was still exhausted, like she teetered on the edge of darkness and death. It was the same feeling she’d gotten after beating the Jabberwocky. It was...empty. Cold.

A small hand found hers, and Kairi met Flora’s caring gaze. “You used your light to defeat those creatures born of darkness. But it cost you dearly.”

“...I know,” Kairi said, lifting a hand to her heart. “I can feel it.”

“You might think light is ‘good’ and darkness is ‘bad,’ but this is just a coward’s classification. In reality, light and darkness are two halves of a whole. The brighter the light you shine, the darker the shadow you cast. Conversely, the deepest shadows are drawn to the purest light. Too much darkness and, well, you’ve seen what can happen. But too much light—”

“—and I could go blind,” Kairi interrupted. She let her hands fall. “That’s why I feel like I died back there. It hurts just to breathe.”

“You’ll be all right, dear,” Fauna said, managing a smile. “Your heart is pure. Light can’t destroy you like it can the rest of us. But you also attract the darkest shadows wherever you go. It’s the same for Aurora.”

“You can’t use your light to fight the darkness anymore,” Merryweather said, frowning. “If you do, you just _might_ die one of these days.”

“Then how do I fight it? We wouldn’t have stood a chance back there,” Kairi protested.

“You must find another way, dear,” Flora said, stepping back. “You must learn to become strong without relying on the light. It will only blind you from the truth in the end, and you don’t want that, do you?”

“If it’s strength we need, then I think I can manage that,” Lightning said. “But those things were in another league. We need some new tricks.”

“Oh! Well, we’re happy to help with that. Of course, we’d like your help in return to save Aurora,” Flora said.

“What happened to her? Why is she trapped?” Kairi asked, relaxing a bit now that the topic had shifted from her.

“Oh my, it’s just terrible,” Fauna said. She went to the stove and put on a pot of hot water to boil, lost in thought and worry.

Merryweather sighed, exasperated, and began to pace. “Basically, Roxaura’s got Aurora chained up in her own castle. The nerve! Ooooh, when I get my wand on that witch, she’ll be sorry for sure!”

“Roxaura?”

“Yes, she showed up here a little while before Aurora returned, and we helped her. The poor thing was all alone in the world, and she reminded us so much of our dear Aurora,” Flora said. “When Aurora returned to rule, Prince Philip was so happy. We all were. But Roxaura wasn’t as thrilled. She became jealous of Aurora and Philip’s love, and it consumed her.”

A whistling sound from the stove indicated that the tea was boiled and ready to drink. Fauna fussed over cups and spilled a bit of scalding water on the hot stove. It sizzled, and Kairi remembered how the Dragoon’s blood had sizzled under the heat of her light. She fought to keep the sudden wave of nausea at bay.

“Sounds like this Roxaura’s just bitter and taking things way too far. All because she doesn’t have a boyfriend?”

“Yes!” Merryweather said. “She’s killing people with her darkness because she can’t have what Aurora has! Oooooh, the conniving little—”

“Merryweather!” Flora said, outraged.

“Tea! Would anyone like a cup?” Fauna asked. She didn’t bother waiting for anyone to accept and handed out cups of the steaming stuff anyway.

Kairi warmed her hands on her teacup, lost in thought. “So...she just wanted to find love? And since she couldn’t, she’s fallen to darkness?”

Fauna sighed. “Yes, that’s exactly it. You see, Roxaura wasn’t a bad person, not when we met her. She was sweet and curious and full of hope, like any normal young lady might be. But even the purest intentions can run afoul if the heart is denied what it wants most.”

“That’s ridiculous. Unrequited love is something almost everyone in any world experiences at some point in their lives. To curse an entire kingdom over it is pathetic,” Lightning said, sipping her tea.

“Hm?” Flora extricated her wand from Merryweather’s grasp and returned her attention to the conversation at hand. “Oh, but that’s not quite it, you see. Roxaura...she’s not like other girls.”

“...She’s a Nobody, isn’t she,” Kairi said, lifting her gaze.

All eyes turned to the young princess, whose expression was solemn and sad as the truth of her words hung heavy in the room. “Aurora’s Nobody.”

“Why...yes, that’s right. How did you know?” Flora asked.

“Fantastic,” Lightning grumbled. “It’s Looking Glass all over again.”

“Roxaura doesn’t have a heart, but she’s a part of Aurora,” Kairi said. “We have to rejoin them to end the plague. It’s the only way.”

Flora and Fauna exchanged worried looks, and Flora sighed. “I don’t know much about all this, but it seems like you know what you’re doing. Can we count on your help?”

“Yes,” Kairi said, setting down her empty tea cup and feeling a little better.

Lightning pushed off the wall and clenched her fists at her sides. “If that’s how we can free Aurora, then I’m in.”

“Excellent!” Flora clapped her hands together. “Now, about that assistance against the forces of darkness I mentioned before. Hold still, please.”

Merryweather and Fauna drew up to her sides and held out their wands. Kairi and Lightning remained still as the three fairies worked their magic. A burst of fairy dust and light illuminated the cottage, and Kairi closed her eyes to its effects. The light died down in a matter of moments, and Kairi gasped.

Lightning’s white outfit was replaced by sleek, black armor and red capes at her hips. Her sword was longer, and it shone with a silver glint under the firelight. Kairi’s tattered pink outfit was gone, and in its place she wore armor of her own. Her arms and hands were covered in silver to her shoulders, where the armor spiked into wicked points to protect her face and neck. Plated boots covered her legs, and thick, red straps bound the grey and black skirt and armored top she now wore.

“Whoa,” Kairi said, admiring her covered hands. The armor appeared durable, but it wasn’t as heavy as it looked.

“Your new clothes are imbued with magic,” Flora explained. “You’ll be able to withstand physical attacks better, and any spells you know will become more potent. I hope it will aid you in your quest.”

Lightning examined herself, spinning a bit. “Not bad, fairies. Not bad at all.”

“I don’t like it,” Merryweather said.

“Oh?” Fauna looked a bit worried.

Merryweather ignored her and pointed her wand at Kairi. “Make it blue!”

Fairy dust transformed the red of Kairi’s clothing to a deep navy color.

“What? No, that’s much too bleak,” Flora said. “Make it red.”

Once more, Kairi’s clothes changed color, this time to their previous crimson hue.

“Now _girls_ , let’s not do this again,” Fauna said, lowering the other fairies’ wands. “You _know_ what happened last time.”

Kairi laughed, and everyone fell silent. “Oh, sorry, it’s just... I guess it’s nice to laugh sometimes.”

Lightning put a hand on Kairi’s shoulder, and Kairi looked up at the older woman. “You ready, kid? This won’t be easy.”

Kairi summoned the _Destiny’s Embrace_ and steeled her gaze. “Yeah. And I won’t cut any corners this time.”

Lightning peered at Kairi over her nose. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

* * *

 

Deep within the Morning Keep, a young woman sat upon a throne of rose marble. Her auburn hair fell in thick waves about her shoulders, and the crown atop her her head did not glisten despite the waning moon’s light. Her subjects sat before her, kneeling and petrified. Thorny vines shackled them in place in their pews, drawing blood and life as they screamed in silence. Their eyes watched the young woman on her throne, awaiting her commands. Some were glazed over, merely reflective and unseeing through the veil of death, but many remained alert, stubborn and strong-willed.

She found no joy in looking upon them. Even though they were here for her. Even though she’d put them there. Even though her power grew as they atrophied. No warmth, no happiness. Just hallowed throne with hollow subjects. A kingdom of nothing and a queen of no one.

“Don’t look so down, Roxaura. It’s such a lovely night. You wouldn’t want to _spoil_ it with a frown, now, would you?”

Roxaura jerked at the man’s voice in her ear. She was on her feet in an instant, her hands thrust before her in defense. Black flames licked her fingers, itching for something to burn. But not him. She could not burn him.

She’d already tried and failed.

Luxord grinned and pulled out a deck of cards. He began to shuffle. Roxaura followed the cards with her sharp, green eyes. She’d never much liked games of chance and luck.

“Look at you on your throne with your crown and jewels. Such a beautiful queen you are, wanting for nothing.”

“Please,” a voice said somewhere, weak and frail.

Luxord chuckled and gazed skyward. “And your subjects certainly _hang_ on your every word.”

Roxaura glanced askance at her moribund subjects. If she looked hard enough, she could see herself in their frozen eyes, like so many little mirrors. “What do you want, Luxord?”

Luxord circled the throne, shuffling his cards over and over and over. “How cold you are. And here I came to check up on you like any good friend.”

“You’re not my friend.”

He grasped her chin between his fingers in a painful grip. Roxaura recoiled, but he moved faster than the eye could see. His cards fell about them and pitter-pattered as they hit the floor.

“That’s right. You don’t have friends,” Luxord said, his tone low and feral. “You don’t have family. You only have me.”

Roxaura shook with rage. “I have time,” she spat.

Luxord laughed from his gut. She could smell something sour on his breath. “And with all that time, you still haven’t found what your heart desires.” He paused and raised his eyebrows, a caricature of surprise he did not feel. “Oh wait, you don’t _have_ a heart.”

Roxaura released the bitter rage inside and propelled him away. Luxord flew across the throne room and slammed into the opposite wall nearly fifty feet away. The plaster and stone brick underneath cracked on impact, leaving a small crater outlining his form. And still, he laughed.

“I will have my heart!” Roxaura’s hands glowed with dark energy.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” Luxord dusted himself off, as though colliding into a stone wall at inhuman speed was nothing to cry over. “Although, at the rate you’re going there won’t be anyone left for you to share it with if you do get it.”

He grinned, and before Roxaura had a chance to blast him again, he summoned a dark vortex and stepped into it. The shadows pulled him in, and he smiled all the way. Roxaura ran her hands through her silken hair and pulled. Her hands came away threaded with hair, bloody at the roots where she’d yanked it out. A scream died in her throat, fizzling to nothing but a croak of frustration and black hatred. A soft _clink_ against the marble floor drew her attention, and she rounded on the offender.

“This is _your_ fault.”

Roxaura advanced on her prisoner, shackled in irons and chained to the wall. Her crown was cracked and splattered with a bit of blood that had spread to her matted, golden hair. Dark eyes glared back over the gag keeping her silent, but there was no hatred there; only pity.

“I’m like this because of _you_!”

Roxaura dug her nails into her fine dress over her heart and drew black blood. It stained her pale fingers, fingers so delicate and regal just like _hers_. Even their faces were similar, perfect. Beautiful. But Aurora was flesh and blood, hope and love, and Roxaura was just empty. A husk. No heartbeat met her searching fingers no matter how much blood she drew. How she longed to dig her nails into Aurora’s heart, have a taste for herself. But Luxord forbade it. Aurora was pure, a princess of the light.

But Roxaura was a queen.

“I can’t take your heart,” Roxaura said, stepping backward. “I can’t rip it from under that pretty dress.” Her eyes traveled skyward. “But I can still break it.”

Aurora followed her Nobody’s gaze up, and the look in her eyes changed. Roxaura noticed, _smelled_ it. Aurora began to struggle.

“Shall I?”

Roxaura lifted her hand over her head, and black blood ran down her fingers to drip onto her pretty, porcelain face. A beautiful lie. Above, Philip did not put up much of a fight anymore. The vines that suspended him from the ceiling by the puncture holes in his princely skin swayed just a bit, like a human chandelier. It wouldn’t be long now. The vines throbbed with his heartbeat, his blood giving life to fleshy roses as it drained from his face. Hollow eyes, even beaten and close to death, remained open and watching, angry. His lips cracked as he sucked in precious air.

“You can’t break love,” he said with great effort.

Roxaura gritted her teeth, and ghost fire bloomed from her bloody hand. “Watch me.”

She squeezed her hand into a fist and Philip convulsed. His eyes rolled back in his head and he coughed. The roses shook in anticipation, drawing more from him. Behind her, Aurora made a racket tugging at her restraints and trying to scream through her gag. It came out sounding like a wounded animal, useless and dying. Roxaura released Philip and he gagged, panting heavily. Still, he refused to succumb to sleep.

“If I can’t have it, then why should you?” Roxaura whispered to herself. “Why should anyone?”

Her hand was sticky, and she was overcome with a sudden desire to wash herself clean. Preserve the image. Perfect the mask. The cards Luxord had left only worsened the bitter emptiness inside, and the room was suddenly asphyxiating. She hurried out of the throne room to escape the feeling, leaving Philip and Aurora to gaze at each other in their silent misery.

“I love you,” Philip managed. His lips cracked with each syllable, but they shed no blood. There was little left to give.

Aurora wept and shook her head, bade him be silent lest he sap his remaining energy. Surely help would come soon. An army, allies, even a kind-hearted passerby. Anyone. Surely the world could not be this cruel. Surely even a Nobody could have the heart not to force such a fate onto the kind princess and her handsome prince. Surely this was not how their fairy tale would end.

“I’m sorry.” Philip’s eyes fell closed, and his shoulders slumped under the force of gravity.

Aurora screamed.

No one came.

* * *

 

Barely half a day of rest was not ideal for a battle of any magnitude. Rest, Lightning had learned early on, was her greatest weapon against any enemy. People got sloppy when they tired or hungered, and that was when they made mistakes. Hot baths, a hearty meal, and a few hours of sleep were more than she’d had back in her home world, Cocoon, when she’d fought to avert the end of days. But on Cocoon, she had also had an entourage of allies blessed with professional skills, extraordinary powers, and insider information. Here, it was just a teenaged neophyte and three squabbling fairies who’d shrunken themselves to bite-size, all the better to buzz in Lightning’s ears.

“Clear!” Kairi’s voice rang out over Lightning’s thoughts.

The distraction was enough to spur the older woman into action, and she rammed her electrified sword through the skull of a rather large Dusk before it had the chance to devour her arm. The new armor had done wonders for Lightning, not only providing sturdy defense but also helping to focus her Thunder spells.

“All together now, girls!” Flora called.

The three fairies ganged up on a bumbling but menacing Heartless and managed to subdue it. Lightning jogged to them and assessed the situation for further threats.

“Lightning,” Kairi said, joining the party. “There are a few more thorn victims up ahead. If we’re lucky, they won’t all change.”

It had taken the better part of the morning and afternoon to make it this far. From the fairies’ cottage in the glen, Lightning and Kairi had hacked their way to the castle ramparts and, with the fairies’ help, lowered the drawbridge across a dried up moat. The courtyard ahead was exposed and dangerous, especially without the cover of night. Lightning had been torn between waiting for dark and pushing ahead. Even exposed in daylight, there was nowhere for the enemy to hide, either.

Kairi’s armor boasted a few splotches of black blood, but nothing alarming. She was getting more comfortable with the sword, and Lightning nodded her approval. If this Roxaura was anything like Caelix had been, Lightning was sure she and Kairi would have their hands full bringing the monster down. Every little bit helped, especially since Kairi could no longer use that little trick of the light she’d relied on against the Jabberwocky.

“Kairi, are you hurt?” Fauna asked, buzzing close to her face.

Kairi nearly crossed her eyes trying to see Fauna, no bigger than a little green leaf. “I think I’m okay, but thanks.”

“She’s fine, Fauna. These are small potatoes,” Merryweather said.

“Well, they’re a little tougher than that,” Kairi said, forcing a smile.

Lightning ignored them and peered around the edge of the main gate to the courtyard. Several human forms stood frozen in place, former palace guards enervating under the weight of swollen, bleeding vines. She counted five in the vicinity, but there could be more. As soon as they approached, they would know the scope of the threat, but they would also lose any element of surprise. Above, that grey castle stood tall and solemn, its purple flags and banners flapping in the summer breeze. Somewhere inside was the princess they needed. Lightning took a deep breath and braced herself.

“Come on. No sense in waiting around for them to come to us.”

“Wait!” Flora said, hovering in front of Lightning’s face. “We’ll use magic.”

“No. The three of you can only take on one target at a time.”

“Then you help them,” Kairi said. “You’ve got magic.”

“And what’re you going to do? Charge in alone? I don’t think so.”

“I’ll be fine. You’ll cover me, right? Maybe we could even split up—”

“No,” Lightning interrupted. “No.”

Kairi look surprised, but it soon melted into look of quiet determination. “I trust you, and your magic. Your lightning’s never let us down before.”

Serah had once asked Lightning when they were just girls if she thought there were other worlds out there.

 _“Of course there are,”_ Lightning had said with confidence. _“If we know about Gran Pulse, there there are probably even more worlds beyond it, too.”_

Serah had accepted this logic without question, as she was wont to do. But her next words stayed with Lightning throughout the years.

_“Maybe, in another world, we exist, living different lives. Like reflections, or echoes. So no matter how far you wander, you’ll always find the people you love right there with you.”_

It was silly, a little girl’s pretty dream of comfort and the familiar, but it had stuck despite Lightning’s insistence on never needing such lovely words. A part of her wondered if Serah was right. Looking at Kairi, it was easy to believe. She was so much like Hope, awkward and ungainly and naive, but so brave and strong-willed and passionate. Lightning had perceived Hope to be a burden initially, but she’d been wrong. No matter how hard a pace she set, he followed and grew stronger, even shouldering her weight when she couldn’t bear it alone.

 _“Why Lightning?”_ he’d asked her long ago.

“Lightning.” She summoned thunder sparks to her hand and watched them dance. “It flashes bright, then fades away. It can't protect. It only destroys.” She closed her fist and dispelled the illusion.

Kairi put an armored hand over her closed fist, her expression unreadable but not unkind. “Stop making excuses. Even if you think your magic’s ability to protect is a lie, then just reject that perception. If you work hard enough, you can make it true.”

Lightning was speechless for a moment, and a part of her wondered if this was all a dream. If she was actually in stasis dreaming the world away. But Kairi’s hand was heavy in hers, unwavering. How could someone so small, so vulnerable and exposed have more strength than a seasoned veteran of countless battles?

Lightning smirked and shook her head.

“What? Did I say something wrong?” Kairi asked, worried.

“No, you just...remind me of someone I know. He’s very important to me.”

Kairi smiled a little.

“Hello, earth to the peanut gallery!” Merryweather said, buzzing between Kairi and Lightning. “If you’re finished, we’ve got a problem.”

Lightning and Kairi diverted their attention to where Merryweather was indicating. The inner gates to the castle were opening, and dark tendrils slithered out, feeling about for something. Lightning stifferend.

Kairi was already moving, and Lightning swore. “Kid, hold up!”

Cover abandoned, they stormed the courtyard and caught up with the three fairies in time to see who had come to welcome them to the castle.

“Luxord!” Kairi said.

The blond man chuckled. Shadows undulated at his feet and in the air around him, as though he was just smoke and mirrors and not really there. “Princess, you look well.”

Lightning drew her sword and began to advance. This time, he wasn’t getting away. Words were unnecessary.

“Ah, ah, ah~” Luxord said, wagging his finger at Lightning.

The shadows at his feet warped and twisted, and short Heartless in soldiers’ armor rose up from the depths, blocking Lightning’s path. Without stopping, she slashed at the nearest one and sent half of it flying back toward Luxord’s feet. Its blood spilled in an arc with its trajectory, pooling when it landed. Luxord didn’t bother sparing it so much as a glance.

“A female knight?” a woman’s voice said from the shadows behind Luxord. “How interesting.”

A young woman stepped into the courtyard and stopped a short distance from Luxord. Her dark blue gown melted into the oily darkness that followed her, punctuated only by the bright green of her eyes, almost glassy. Lightning didn’t have to know her to understand that she was some kind of royal presence. Her association with Luxord meant she was probably Roxaura, the Nobody responsible for all the trouble Lightning an Kairi had gone through to get here.

“I’m not a knight,” Lightning said. “I’m a soldier. We’re not so noble about showing mercy to damsels in dresses.”

Roxaura laughed and the shadows danced around her. “Such arrogance. You must have a strong heart to support such delusions of grandeur.”

“Are you Roxaura?” Kairi demanded. “Where’s Aurora? What’ve you done with her?”

“It’s rude to jump straight to business,” Luxord chided.

“I’m not here to talk to you,” Kairi said. “If you won’t tell me, then I’ll have to force it out of you.”

“You’re too late,” Roxaura said, grinning. “Aurora’s as good as dead. Now that her _true love_ has fallen into depravity.”

“Hey! What’d you do to Prince Philip, you mean old witch?” Merryweather shouted.

Flora and Fauna each pulled her back by the arms to keep her out of reach of the enemy.

“Depravity?” Kairi asked. “What’re you talking about? Answer me!”

Roxaura stopped smiling and clenched her fists. Her bright eyes burned with a searing hatred Lightning had never seen before. “What is it about Aurora? Why does everyone want to save her? She doesn’t deserve it. She’s _nothing_.”

“Sounds like you’re bitter,” Lightning said. “What’s the matter? _Jealous_ of Aurora? Is that why you’re doing all this? Pathetic.”

Something changed in Roxaura and she turned her full attention on Lightning. She took a step forward. “How _dare_ you. You have no idea who I am or what I’ve done.”

“Sure I do,” Lightning goaded. “You’re the real nothing here, not Aurora. A Nobody. Only a monster would torture all these innocent people to death and hold an entire kingdom hostage. You’re just a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum because you can’t have what you want.”

Luxord laughed, deep and husky. “Oh, my dear, don’t take it so personally. The truth is cruel, and you’re just so transparent.” He approached Roxaura, who was shaking with rage, and leaned in close to her ear. “So wrap yourself in pretty lies. Enough layers and you’ll become solid, too.”

“Hey, get away from her,” Kairi said, worried.

Lightning didn’t have time to wonder at Kairi’s misplaced concern. The air around Roxaura popped and boiled, shimmering with heat. Something was changing, and Lightning had a feeling it wouldn’t be pretty.

“That’s it,” Luxord cooed. “You don’t have a heart, and you’ll never have what Aurora has. You’ll never have love.”

“Stop it,” Kairi said, fear lacing her tone. “Stop it!”

Luxord ignored her. “But you have something better. Swallow that bitterness, all that sweet hatred, and then you’ll have what you want most.”

Roxaura ran her hands over her face and hair, slowly at first, but her movements became jerkier and more frantic. To Lightning’s horror, she was ripping her own skin with her sharp nails. They hadn’t been so sharp before.

Her hair had also not been long enough to touch the ground before.

There is a distinct moment of time, no longer than second or two, in which the ordinary becomes extraordinary. A thing is just a thing, harmless and illuminated, but with the passing of a shadow or a glance askance, even just a quick one, returns an image of distortion, something not quite right. The thing has become something else, its otherness growing at a rate unseen in nature, cancerous, abnormal. The thing is no longer just a thing, and eyes can no longer be trusted.

Until that second passes and it hasn’t faded. And you realize that a dream doesn’t feel like this, doesn’t taste or smell like this, rotten and musky with a hint of sweet honey to lure the senses. And the thing before you has become monstrous, and you wish you were dreaming because all it takes to go back to that safe place is to open your eyes.

But Lightning’s eyes were already open, and the nightmare had only just begun.

The darkness behind Roxaura coiled and tightened, moving as one, snake-like entity. A tail. The embroidered fabric of her dress was not embroidery and lace and sequins, but rippling scales that reflected none of the diminishing sunlight overhead. Her nails kept growing until they were longer than her hands. As the shadows seeped into her queenly skin and poisoned it, only her bright green eyes remained, suddenly more suited to their visage now. The true face.

“Oh my god,” Kairi said, her voice cracking.

Lightning adjusted her grip on her broadsword, forcing herself to look away from those shimmering eyes lest she see herself in them.

“What is it they say about a woman scorned?” Luxord said with a sneer.

“You monster,” Kairi said, her keyblade shaking in her grip. “What have you done to her?”

“Me? Nothing she wouldn’t have done herself. The heart wants what it wants, and when it doesn’t get it, well... Even a Nobody isn’t immune to the concept of a broken heart.”

“But Nobodies don’t have hearts,” Kairi said.

“No.” Luxord eyed the creature Roxaura had become, a glint in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. “We don’t. That’s precisely the problem, you see.”

Roxaura shook with emotion, but she produced no words. Instead, she screamed. Banshee-like, her wail echoed throughout the courtyard and beyond, perhaps reverberating throughout the entire world. The handful of thorn victims in the courtyard began to shudder and warp. Waking up.

Luxord retreated to the castle. “I really must be going now. A queen’s affairs are hers alone.”

“Wait!” Kairi ran after him before Lightning could stop her.

Roxaura was faster. She lunged at Kairi, who threw up her keyblade just in time to block. It proved unnecessary.

“Lightning!”

An enormous bolt of lightning zigzagged in between Kairi and Roxaura, flashing bright and hot before igniting the ground in a conflagration of light and ashes. It lasted only the blink of an eye, but it was enough to throw Roxaura off-kilter.

“Go after him!” Lightning shouted. “I’ll deal with her.”

“But—”

“And you three, too. Get moving!”

The three fairies buzzed about, frantic. Kairi hesitated only for a moment and nodded.

“Come on,” she said to the three fairies, disappearing into the castle.

Lightning watched them go, and Roxaura righted herself. Having failed to stop Kairi, she now attempted to give chase. Lightning ran at her and slashed, forcing Roxaura to lunge away from the entrance to the castle back toward the courtyard. She hissed and spit through incisors longer than Lightning’s pinky finger. Whatever she was, she wasn’t human anymore.

“You’ll have to get through me if you want to get back to your throne,” Lightning said, brandishing her sword.

Roxaura glared with those venomous green eyes and gurgled unintelligibly. Behind her, the thorn victims had begun to transform into their Heartless and Nobody counterparts. Lightning took a steadying breath in anticipation of the hard battle ahead of her.

“Sorry, kid,” Lightning said. “Lightning can only destroy in the end.”

She touched her fingers to the brand on her chest, feeling it sear even beneath layers of fairy armor. Her curse rose to meet her will, ever faithful and greedy. Red ribbons of magic seeped from between her fingers, like a blood sacrifice to summon the terrible power foisted upon her. For Serah, however, Lightning had sworn to bear this curse and see it through to the end.

“But I’m damn good at obliterating by now.”

Roxaura’s spawned Heartless and Nobodies converged to aid her, and the small army advanced, intending to overwhelm Lightning in one go. They would never reach her in time.

“Odin!” Lightning shouted.

The heavens opened up and her terrible curse rained down on the battlefield.

* * *

 

Kairi sprinted through the empty halls of Aurora’s castle in search of Luxord. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather tailed close behind.

“Girls, let’s split up and search for Aurora and Philip,” Flora ordered. “We must find them before it’s too late!”

Kairi didn’t argue with them and kept going. To her surprise, however, Merryweather still buzzed alongside her. “Aren’t you going?” she asked the tiny blue fairy.

“My sisters will be fine. It’s you I’m worried about. I can’t let you fight all alone.”

“Thanks, Merryweather. We’ll find them and get rid of Luxord once and for all.”

The pair raced down a long hallway until they reached a white marble staircase in a room with high-vaulted windows. Outside, the sun was dipping below the horizon and night was setting in. Kairi began to climb the stairs, but Luxord’s voice stopped her.

“You’ve gotten stronger,” he said, his voice echoing everywhere and nowhere at once.

Kairi looked around. “Show yourself, you coward.”

Luxord laughed. “You sound so much like him.” He materialized at the top of the stairs and peered down at Kairi over his nose. “I suppose it’s true about memories. They live inside us, sleeping forever if they must, until we want them back.”

“What’re you saying? Where is he?” Even though she didn’t know his name or face, Kairi knew Luxord was speaking of the boy Kairi was fighting for. He knew something, and her desire to find out was almost painful in its intensity. “Tell me!”

“He fought valiantly, I’m told. He wasn’t afraid of losing his memories, his heart, everything he holds dear. And all for you. I suppose that’s what they call love, isn’t it?”

Kairi’s breath escaped her, like she’d been punched in the gut. Luxord’s words were so nostalgic that she knew they were true. Her body quaked with the echoes of a memory she’d long forgotten, an emotion she thought she’d never known, and yet it was there, crawling to the surface.

“I’ll never understand it,” he went on. “Roxaura tried, and look what happened to her. What is it about the heart? It’s a greedy little demon. People like you are born with hearts, and yet you spend your whole lives searching for the heart of another because yours alone isn’t enough. You can’t bear to be alone, even when you know there are others without hearts of their own. It’s disgusting, such a level of conceit.”

Kairi balked at his candor. There was no bitterness there, unlike with Roxaura. He was more like a curious bystander, an amoral scientist watching rats eat each other alive and wondering if there was a way to harness that hunger.

“There’s no point to having a heart unless you can share it with others. That’s what makes you human. It’s not arrogance, it’s compassion. I think even a Nobody can understand that. You were human once, too.”

There was a momentary pause in which Kairi was sure he would lose control the way Roxaura had earlier. But he burst out laughing, and she paled. Luxord was one of those people whose laughter was far more horrifying than any threat or realization of violence.

“Forgive me, but you just make it so _easy_!”

“Hey! What’re you talking about?” Merryweather demanded.

“As if any of it even matters. Hearts, they’re just a construct. A burden. My Organization wants them so much, they’re willing to sacrifice countless lives for just a taste. But who cares? This existence is so much _fun_. Why should I ever wish for something else? The heart is just a tether. I’d rather be free to make my own luck.”

“Who _are_ you?” Kairi asked. “What do you want?”

“Oh, don’t mind me. I’m just the dealer. This is your game, Princess. Well, yours and Naminé’s.”

“What... What do you know about Naminé?”

Luxord feigned surprised. “Oh! Oh dear, that’s right, she didn’t _tell_ you, did she? About this little game she’s playing with you. And with him. Every coin has two sides.”

Kairi shook her head to get his riddles out. “I don’t understand.”

“No, I suppose you don’t. And isn’t that odd? I do wonder why Naminé didn’t tell you _why_ he’s sleeping. Or _why_ he forgot all about you. She didn’t even tell you why _her_ , did she?”

Whatever he was doing would not work. Naminé could be trusted, of that Kairi was certain. More certain than she’d ever been about anything in her life. “It doesn’t matter. She’s helping him, and so am I. Nothing you can say will stop either of us.”

Luxord chuckled and threw his hands up. “And that, Princess, ought to be your primary cause for concern. The heart wants what it wants, no matter how pure. The question is...how far would you go to satisfy it? How far would Naminé go? Maybe as far as Roxaura’s gone?”

There was something in his words that had wormed its way into Kairi’s resolve. A seed of doubt, however small, that nagged like a phantom itch, a whisper in her ear she couldn’t quite hear. “I don’t understand.”

With a wave of his hand, Luxord summoned a dark vortex and stepped back into it. “You will.”

When Kairi saw that he was retreating, she raced up the stairs to apprehend him. But she was too late, and she grasped at empty darkness where he once stood. It disintegrated between her fingers until there was nothing there at all.

“Yes, run away, you craven fool!” Merryweather spat at the empty space where Luxord had stood only moments ago. She crossed her little arms and glared.

“It’s okay, Merryweather. We still have to find Aurora. Luxord’s not our biggest problem.”

The little blue fairy broke out of her trance and flitted around in front of Kairi’s nose. “You’re right. Let’s go. the throne room is up ahead. If that witch was using it, maybe we can find some clues there.”

Kairi nodded. “Good idea.”

They continued down the hall at the top of the stairs, leaving the Luxord’s shadows behind. His cryptic warnings, however, followed Kairi deeper into the castle, riding the wind behind her like a second shadow.

* * *

 

Odin, the physical manifestation of Lightning’s curse, roared at the darkening night sky. In the form of a magnificent steed armored in silver and gold, each beat of his hooves upon the cobblestone courtyard sent a clap of thunder hurtling at the enemy Heartless and Nobodies. Between the two of them, Lightning and Odin decimated the opposition. All but Roxaura.

At some point, Lightning had stopped calling the royal Nobody by name in her mind.

The thing left over was an echo of human presence, the embodiment of spite. It feasted on the flesh of its fallen minions, devouring their blood and tearing them apart, searching for the heart it didn’t have. Lightning could barely watch.

But more than whatever battle-fury she felt toward the creature that had enslaved this world and brought suffering to its people, there was a deep-seated resentment for the force that had driven Roxaura to this primal state of devolution. The heart was a wicked labyrinth of strange emotions and nonsensical purpose at times, and to get lost in its neverending twists and turns was surely a frightful prospect.

Lightning sheathed her sword. “Odin, let’s end this.”

The stallion deity answered her call and rushed to meet her. Roxaura shrieked and conjured magic. Lightning swore and made a run for it, sensing impending doom. She didn’t make it.

A terrible ice spell the likes of which Lightning had never seen struck her with the force of a hundred blades, sending her careening into the castle wall. Brick cracked under the impact, and something warm trickled down Lightning’s forehead. It stung her left eye, blinding her.

She hadn’t even taken a direct hit. Odin stood on shaking legs, crumbling before Roxaura. His golden armor cracked and ice crystals snaked among the plates, sinking deeper. Lightning tried calling out, but the words barely escaped her cracked lips. Odin fell, and the spell was broken. She was alone.

Roxaura scraped at the ground where Odin had been, but not a trace of the steed was left. He had returned to the brand on Lightning’s heart, the ever faithful curse that bled her inside until the next time. Frustrated, Roxaura tore up the ground in search of the heart that should have been there. Lightning coughed and struggled to her feet. She had to end this now or face death. Walking was an ordeal, and the pain bordered on the unholy. She wiped the blood from her eye with the end of the cape at her hip, though her vision remained blurry. Roxaura appeared as a gangly, dark creature, her limbs just a little too long to be comfortably human. The shadows permeating her skin had long ago seeped into her eyes and blinded her to everything but primal need.

Nearby, Odin’s great halberd lay discarded on the ground, crackling faintly with electricity.

Lightning choked. It should have disappeared with Odin, but here it was. She chanced a look at Roxaura, who had just about given up the hunt for Odin’s heart and turned her sights on Lightning. Swallowing the pain and the throbbing in her head, Lightning sprinted toward the halberd and dove to grab it. Roxaura shook with rage and screamed again before taking off after Lightning at a speed those too-long limbs should not have been able to reproduce. Lightning skidded on the ground, her armor sparking in her wake, and swiped the halberd. She was back on her feet with one fluid roll, and Roxaura was nearly upon her.

 _“Curses can be broken,”_ Kairi’s words echoed in Lightning’s swimming head.

With a battlecry, Lightning turned the divine halberd on a charging Roxaura and reached deep down to the ugly core of this curse that had ruined her life. Thunderbolts licked at the axe head of the halberd, popping and jumping in every direction searching for something to scorch. Lightning charged and collided with Roxaura.

The explosion was deafening, like being at the ground zero of a bomb raid. Lightning had been in such a situation before, but never quite like this. The magic burned her skin through her armor, electrocuting her blood with mini explosions in her veins. All of it rushed to her fingertips and through the halberd to Roxaura. Blood magic, something dark and deceptive.

It worked.

The ringing stopped and reality picked up where it left off. Roxaura slumped forward, her clawed hands wrapped around the halberd’s handle. The weapon’s point, a wicked blade, had pieced clean through Roxaura’s chest and charred a thick section of her abdomen. Lightning panted, her adrenaline fading as the pain slowly crept back in to nurse her into oblivion.

The shadows receded. Roxaura’s nails retracted back to their finely manicured points, and the rot lifted from her skin. Those green eyes opened once more, having lost their edge of madness in the face of defeat. Odin’s halberd had shredded Roxaura’s chest, and had she been a normal human with a beating heart, she would have died instantly.

Roxaura coughed and spilled thick, black blood on Odin’s halberd, thick with spiteful poison. Dazed and empty, her eyes met Lightning’s. “I feel nothing.”

Lightning’s throat clenched tight enough to impair her breathing. A terrible thirst clawed at her throat, threatening to spill, but it did not.

“Why can’t I feel anything? I just wanted to feel it, just once.”

Roxaura slumped and Lightning kneeled on the ground, willing the pain away with little success. Above, pale moonlight made the blood on the ground glisten around the two women, much like the billions of lights in the sea Lightning and Kairi had encountered at the start of all this.

“You’ll never feel anything but bitterness as long as you make others suffer,” Lightning said at last.

“Ah,” Roxaura gasped, spewing up more blood. She closed her eyes and breathed softly. “But at least that part was mine. All mine.”

Lightning sighed and tried to catch her breath, unwilling to think about this anymore. She had to find Kairi so they could reunite Roxaura and Aurora. With a heave and no warning, she yanked the halberd from Roxaura’s chest and sent her toppling to the ground in a heap. But Roxaura barely made a sound, numb to pain and pleasure alike. Lightning almost felt sorry for her, but the remains of the innocent people strewn about the courtyard covered in thorns obliterated that fleeting insanity. Dismissing Odin’s halberd, Lightning bent down and shouldered Roxaura’s limp body, ignoring the charred flesh rubbing against her armor. Biting her tongue to help stave off her body’s pain, Lightning trudged toward the castle in search of Kairi.

* * *

 

“Aurora!”

Merryweather buzzed away from Kairi to the opposite end of the throne room. Startled, Kairi followed, but the grisly view slowed her down. People, wrapped in bleeding vines, sat in long pews as though enraptured by an invisible entertainer, their eyes frozen open. None of them moved, and Kairi was inclined to keep her distance, remembering the last time she got too close to one of these poor souls. Eyes followed her as she walked forward toward the throne, but the room was silent. Eerily so.

Kairi caught up to Merryweather, who was blasting blue magic. Aurora was chained to the wall, gagged. Her blue dress was ripped in places, and old blood clung to its fabric, as though it had been painted upon her ages ago. Kairi covered her mouth in disgust and pity. How long had she been chained up here like an animal?

“Aurora, it’s okay, you’re safe now,” Kairi said, blinking back any tears that threatened to fall. Something in the air was stinging her eyes, but she tried to ignore it.

“Help me with these chains,” Merryweather said. Her blue magic was steadily burning through one thick link.

Kairi examined the shackles, unsure how to go about freeing Aurora. Striking them was dangerous, as she might injure the captive princess in the process. She also didn’t know any magic that could help with this. There was one thing she could do, however.

“I’ll heal her,” Kairi said, gently nudging Merryweather back. “Maybe she can tell us what to do.”

Merryweather made a sour face but complied. Kairi raised a hand to Aurora’s forehead and let the Cure spell flow from her fingertips. Seconds ticked by in silence as a soft, green light ran over Aurora’s body, weaving through the rips in her dress and healing old wounds.

“Can’t you go any faster?” Merryweather asked.

“Just a minute.”

Aurora moaned and blinked her eyes, coming to.

“Aurora!” Merryweather exclaimed, flying right in the princess’s face. “You’re awake!”

Aurora was dazed as she recovered from her injuries and looked between Merryweather and Kairi. But her moaning soon turned to tempered gags. She struggled against her chains, eyes wide and fearful.

“It’s okay, we’re getting out you of here,” Kairi said, reaching around to remove Aurora’s gag.

The bound princess tried to speak, but only managed to cough at first. Merryweather used her magic to help soothe Aurora’s throat and help her speak. Once finished healing Aurora, Kairi brushed tangled hair from her eyes.

“Hey, calm down, you’re safe.”

Aurora gasped for breath and met Kairi’s eyes. “No,” she croaked. “She turned him.”

Kairi frowned. “What’re you talking about?”

“Philip,” Aurora said, her dark gaze shifting around the room. Tears filled her eyes. “Oh, Philip. You have to stop him before—”

A _scree_ ing sound, like knives against stone, sounded from somewhere in the room. Kairi froze but dared not turn around.

“Oh god,” Aurora whispered. “Oh god.”

Silence. Kairi slowly backed away from Aurora. The room’s other occupants still sat in the many pews running the length of the room, all of them unmoving and quiet. Too quiet. Something moved in the far left periphery of Kairi’s vision, and she whirled.

No sound at all.

Just a weight that became heavier with each breath Kairi took, each one building up a bitter taste in the back of her throat. She swallowed and regretted it, nearly gagging. Her hands began to sweat in her armor.

Looming. Something was here, and if she turned around she might see it. A thing not yet made real except in her imagination, its claws rending the air just behind her, tempting her to turn. She swung her keyblade in an arc, slicing empty air.

A heartbeat and a held breath. That floating tingle in the pit of her stomach that said _too late._

“Above you!” Aurora cried.

Kairi fell backward to the floor and threw her keyblade up just a shred of a second too late. Two katana slammed into her with a force so powerful, Kairi was sure she’d broken a wrist just catching the blow. Prostrate on her back, she looked up into the face of the being that had beaten her down. A pair of eyes stared back at her, pupilless, through a slitted helmet. The creature was stark white, bloodless, and worst of all, it was utterly silent. So quiet it seemed to suck the sound right out of her, too.

“Kairi!” Merryweather screamed.

Kairi grunted and let the Nobody push her down toward the stairs, using the natural incline to roll its body weight and hers. Back on her feet in an instant, she was almost too late again to catch the Nobody’s next attack. With all the skill of a seasoned swordsman, the Nobody slashed at Kairi with twin katana, relentless, inhuman. Kairi gasped for breath as it tried to back her into a corner. Beating it head-on, sword for sword, would be impossible like this. Looking around while she parried the Nobody’s blows, she searched for anything that could help her. All that was here, however, were the filled pews.

Good enough.

Pushing the Nobody back on one last parry, Kairi used it as a spring scale to jettison backward and to the right, where she stepped on the armrest of a pew and launched into the air. The Nobody was caught by surprise but recovered quickly and moved to catch her mid-air. Kairi brought down her keyblade with frightening determination, and the Nobody caught it between its crossed katana.

It was just what she’d been hoping for. Swinging her legs over her head and using the crossed katana as a jumping off point and hurtled over the Nobody’s head. It slashed her arms as she flew, but the fairy armor protected her. That was to say nothing of the bruises she would likely have, though.

Landing on her feet in a crouched position, Kairi immediately spun on the balls of her feet and thrust forward, her keyblade in the lead. The Nobody was just turning around to block her, and it was a risk she would end up paying for. The Nobody brought down one katana just as Kairi struck it in the lower abdomen from below. The katana sliced her in the lower back through her reinforced clothing. Kairi cried out, but her momentum drove her forward, pain and all.

The keyblade ripped through the Nobody’s middle and came out the other side. The smell of burning necrotic flesh made Kairi’s throat burn. Skin popped and smoked as her keyblade tore through the Nobody’s susceptible flesh. Black blood ran in rivers down its legs, evaporating over the keyblade. And they fell together.

Kairi slumped to the floor while the Nobody fell backward, twitching. The flesh around the keyblade wound melted and began to sizzle. Kairi panted, the wound in her back stinging as blood dribbled down her backside to the cold stone floor.

“Kairi!” Merryweather flew to her side, erratic as a hummingbird.

Kairi didn’t answer her, instead focusing on catching her breath and her bearings. The rancid stench of the dead Nobody was too much to handle, so she forced herself to stand upright and jerked the keyblade free. The movement disturbed her wound, tearing the skin open further, and she hissed.

“Hold still, stubborn girl!” Merryweather said.

Something cool and soothing caressed the laceration on Kairi’s back, and she exhaled sharply, leaning her weight on the keyblade for support. “What’s that?”

“I can’t heal you fully without my sisters, but I can stop the bleeding so it doesn’t get worse,” Merryweather explained in her usual clipped tone.

Kairi sighed, grateful. “Thanks.”

“I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen a princess move like you do,” Merryweather went on. “It’s downright strange, like a circus performer. I can’t imagine how you learned such a ridiculous trick.”

“Guess I’m not much of a court princess, huh.”

“Absolutely _not_.”

A few moments more and Merryweather’s magic ceased. Kairi turned around, pleased that the pain had receded to a tolerable intensity. The bleeding had also stopped.

“You’re more of a knight. The noblest kind,” Merryweather said.

Kairi looked around for the blue fairy, but she was already fluttering back to Aurora. Kairi said nothing to that, but something in Merryweather’s words had struck a chord with her. It felt good. She bit back a smile.

Aurora was silent, her dark eyes wide as tears fell freely, like she’d seen a ghost. The look stopped Kairi in her tracks.

“Aurora?” she asked.

The princess said nothing as she continued to look straight ahead, unseeing.

“Just hold on and I’ll have you out of here in a jiffy,” Merryweather said. “Oh, where _are_ Flora and Fauna, anyway?”

Any joy Kairi had been feeling a moment ago died a slow and painful death as realization sank in. “That Nobody...”

Aurora choked on a sob. “Oh, oh...”

Kairi covered her mouth, horrified. She looked around the room, searching. Finally, her eyes alighted on a massive puddle of dark blood near the throne. Her gaze rose, dreading what she would find but unable to look away. Hanging from the ceiling was a tangle of thorny vines, engorged with blood and flowering, but they were empty. Ripped apart.

“Prince Philip...” she whispered.

She was too late. Aurora had watched Kairi kill her beloved, the monster he’d become thanks to Roxaura’s spite.

“Aurora I... I’m so sorry,” Kairi said, shaking with the threat of tears.

“You mean, Prince Philip is dead?” Merryweather said, ashen-faced.

“Merryweather!”

Kairi and Merryweather turned at the sound of Flora’s voice at the entrance of the throne room. She and Fauna zipped toward the party in a hurry. Behind them, Lightning trudged through the door carrying an immobile Roxaura, trailing black blood behind her.

“Lightning,” Kairi said, relieved to see her in one piece.

Lightning dragged Roxaura to the group and propped her up at the foot of the throne. Roxaura was breathing, and her eyes were half-lidded, but she said nothing, like she was in a trance of some sort. When Lightning saw the look on Kairi’s face, she tensed.

“What’s wrong?”

Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather worked together to free Aurora from her chains.

“It’s the prince,” Kairi said, trying hard to put on a strong front. “We were too late.”

Lightning followed Kairi’s gaze to the remains of the Nobody on the floor a short distance away, and her expression turned grim. “Shit.”

Freed at last, Aurora slumped to the floor on her hands and knees, shaking with grief. The three fairies reverted to their normal sizes and helped her up, offering words of condolence they knew would make no difference. But they had to try.

A warm wind at the nape of Kairi’s neck made her whirl. It was the same feeling she’d gotten just before Philip’s Nobody attacked, a phantom presence not quite there. Realization dawned, and she gasped.

“His Heartless is still here somewhere,” she whispered to Lightning, who noticed her sudden change in demeanor.

“Goddamn rats,” Lightning grumbled.

The two women were so focused on peering into the shadows in the room that they failed to notice the puddle of blood near the throne begin to ripple. Spindly hands rose up from its imaginary depths and pulled a body up, black as night. Lightning heard it first and spun around.

“There,” she hissed, already advancing.

The Neo-Shadow pulled itself up and made a clicking sound that made Kairi’s skin crawl. She gripped the keyblade with both hands and ignored the burn in her back as she prepared for the next fight. With Lightning’s help, she backed the Heartless into a corner against the wall.

“You wanna do the honors?” Lightning offered.

“Yes,” Kairi said. “I’m sorry.”

Kairi raised the keyblade and prepared to strike, but Aurora’s cry stopped her.

“Philip!”

In the distraction, the Heartless slipped past Kairi and Lightning, slithering toward Aurora and the three fairies with alarming speed.

Lightning cursed, and Kairi turned to run after it, afraid for the others who were unarmed.

“Aurora, no!” Kairi said, wishing she were faster, lighter, able to protect this woman when she couldn’t protect the man she loved.

Aurora did not heed the warning, however, and stood her ground. The Heartless skidded to a halt just shy of her, its elongated claw raised in a menacing threat. One twitch and it would rip Aurora to shreds. But it waited.

“What the hell?” Lightning said, advancing to take advantage of the bizarre situation and intervene on Aurora’s behalf.

“Philip,” Aurora said, reaching for the Heartless.

“Wait, don’t—”

Kairi never finished her words. Aurora reached for the Heartless and pulled it close in a tight embrace. A blinding flash of light filled the whole room, and Kairi shielded her eyes. It was warm and gentle, like a summer breeze, but Kairi couldn’t stand to look into it with the naked eye.

And then she was running, her feet weighted and her keyblade long gone. Through darkness, carving a path, and reaching for something in the distance just out of grasp. The darkness snapped at her heels, trying to trip her, sink her into the abyss, but she pressed forward to a lonely shadow just ahead, wallowing, and reaching for her, too.

 _“This time, I’ll protect you,”_ she heard herself saying. An old echo, another time and another place.

She lunged forward, desperate, and the light blocked her view just as her fingers brushed another’s, barely. It subsided in a matter of moments, and the room came back into focus. She was back in the present, keyblade in hand, and reaching for nothing at all. No phantom fingers clinging to her like a lifeline and no dream voice ringing in her ears—or was it a memory? She hissed and raised a hand to her aching head.

The Neo-Shadow was gone. In its place, Aurora embraced a tall man in tattered clothing, and he held her close as though his very life depended on it.

“Prince Philip,” Fauna said, awestruck.

“It’s a miracle,” Flora said, shedding a few tears.

Kairi looked up and, sure enough, there was Philip holding his beloved close, crying into her hair and shaking. Aurora pulled away and wiped his tears, smiling through her own.

“Aurora,” he said. “How...?”

“I promised myself that I would never let you go,” she said. “No matter how far you fall.”

Philip smoothed back her hair, still matted with traces of her own blood, but the look in his eyes saw only the vision of the woman he’d fallen in love with in a dream made real. Careless of their audience, he pulled Aurora into a fierce kiss through their tears. She wrapped her arms around his neck and found the strength to laugh into the kiss.

“I’ll be damned,” Lightning said. “Maybe some fairytales really do come true.”

“That’s no fairytale,” Merryweather snapped. She tried to hide a shy smile. “That’s love.”

A soft groaning sound drew Kairi’s attention. Roxaura, still slumped against the foot of the throne, lulled in a liminal state between life and death as she drooled black blood down her chin and onto her tattered gown.

Philip released Aurora and she kneeled down before her fallen Nobody. She reached out a hand to brush Roxaura’s sweaty bangs from her face, but was met with a stinging slap on the wrist.

“Don’t touch me,” Roxaura spat.

Droplets of black blood splattered across Aurora’s face, and she wiped them away without a word.

“You’ve done unspeakable things,” Aurora said in a tone that sent shivers down Kairi’s spine. This was no dream-swept maiden waiting for her prince to save her. This was a queen ready to right the wrongs inflicted upon her kingdom and her people. “And you have to answer for them. I will not let you continue this reign of terror any longer. You’ve lost, Roxaura.”

“How _dare_ you speak my name,” Roxaura hissed. She lunged forward and gripped Aurora by the shoulders, digging her nails into Aurora’s skin. “How dare you act so high and mighty. You spoiled, rotten trash. Everything you are, everything you have was given to you freely. You’ve never had to struggle or fight for anything. Don’t you _dare_ speak to me as though we’re equal!”

Lightning moved to pull Roxaura back, but Philip was faster.

“It’s all right,” Aurora said, gripping Roxaura’s wrists in a firm hold and trying to hide the pain she felt from the nails cutting her skin.

Philip hesitated as the two of them glared at each other. Kairi and Lightning hung back, but they were ready to intervene at a moment’s notice.

“You’re right,” Aurora said. “I’m lucky to have been born a princess. And I was lucky to find love, too. But no one gave it to me. I had to fight to keep it, just like I fought for it today when you tried to kill Philip.”

“You selfish bitch,” Roxaura said. “You have no idea what it’s like to feel this way!”

“Of course I do,” Aurora said, hauling Roxaura to her feet and staggering a bit with the added weight. “You’re the other side of my heart. I feel everything you feel.”

Roxaura shook with anger. “You lie.”

“No. I just never gave into the poisonous words of people like Luxord.”

“Kairi, finish this,” Lightning said.

Kairi nodded and stood behind Roxaura. Aurora smiled sadly.

“You’ll see what I mean,” Aurora said. “Sleep now.”

“No, wait, you _can’t_ —!”

Kairi jammed the keyblade through Roxaura’s chest, opening up the hole Lightning had made earlier, and pierced Aurora’s heart on the other side. Veins of light travelled away from the puncture, burning away the charred remnants of Roxaura’s battle with Lightning. They crept to her extremities, consuming her, and in a flash she was gone, as though she had never been there at all. Aurora reached for something to keep her from falling, and Philip caught her by the arm.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Aurora took a few steadying breaths, and Kairi watched her carefully. She moved like someone drunk on sleep, but she smiled and nodded. “I will be.”

“Oh my! Look!” Fauna said.

Kairi and Lightning turned toward the pews where Fauna was skittering about between the people only to behold yet another miracle. The thorny vines withered before their eyes and the color returned to the victims’ faces. Fauna zapped the vines with her magic, and they shriveled up and fell to the floor, where they turned to ash. The blood roses shed their petals and turned black as they lost their vigor. About two thirds of the room’s occupants slumped in their chairs and came to, groggy, after a long sleep.

“They’re alive!” Flora said, beside herself with joy.

“Princess Aurora?” a short, plump man said, rubbing his eyes. “Good heavens, you’re all right!” He ran toward Aurora and took her hand, kissing it. “Oh, praise be! I’m so happy you’re all right!”

Aurora smiled through her tears. “And I’m glad to see you’re all right, Duke. It’s over now.”

The reunions were heartfelt and poignant. Not everyone remembered the details of what had happened, but all were overjoyed to see their princess alive and well. Queen now, to be precise.

Not all of them survived, Kairi noticed with a heavy heart. Some of them had wasted away for too long before help could arrive. Yet another reminder of Roxaura’s torment. Among those who had perished were Aurora’s parents, the previous King and Queen.

The next two days were spent recovering. More survivors of Roxaura’s terrorism wandered back to the palace now that they were free. Some reunited with lost families and lovers, others found themselves alone in the world, their loved ones having perished. All were welcome and sheltered by the new King and Queen, who made rebuilding their priority. The Kingdom of Morning would see many changes, but it would face them with the light of a new dawn on the horizon. One free from the darkness Luxord and Roxaura had brought with them.

The first night after the battle, Kairi had collected Aurora’s light for use in reviving Serah and the boy she couldn’t remember. Aurora listened, enraptured, to Kairi’s tale.

“I think what you’re doing is incredibly noble,” Aurora said. “It’s easy to spout poetry, but to actually fight for what you want takes a special brand of courage.”

Kairi smiled, but it didn’t reach her ears. “I’m just trying to do the right thing.”

The sound of her own voice haunted her wherever she went, vowing to protect the very boy she was searching for now. The memory had alighted upon her like an idea, always having been there, just looked at the wrong way until now. Watching Aurora pull Philip from the deepest abyss had set off something inside Kairi, something achingly familiar. This quest would not be the first time she saved the boy she couldn’t remember. And yet, his name and face still eluded her, as did his place in her heart.

Aurora watched Kairi under the muted candlelight of her private chambers, a knowing look in her eyes. “This boy you seek,” she began. “Do you love him?”

Kairi dismissed the keyblade and rubbed her eyes. Try as she might, she could not find an answer to that question. “I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

“Love is not so easily forgotten, Kairi. Even when there’s nothing left to you but cold and dark, it can still find you.”

Kairi sighed. “I wish it were that easy to accept. I could die out there at any moment. And then what? What if I never remember him?”

Aurora put a hand on Kairi’s shoulder. “The heart remembers, even if the mind does not. Sometimes...all it needs is a little reminder. I’m sure wherever he is, he wishes he could remember you, too.”

“Yeah, I like to think that.”

Aurora walked to the window and drew back the curtains. Outside, the courtyard was aglow with firelight and starlight and moonlight. People danced and sang, finally remembering how to be happy after so much pain and blood.

“There’s a place here called the Twilight Sea. At night, it sparkles with the light of a billion fallen stars.”

Kairi joined Aurora at the window and looked into the distance. “Lightning and I saw it on our way here. It was beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“The fairies told me a legend about it, a story all little boys and girls in my kingdom hear when they’re young. There are many worlds out there, as we both know, but they’re disconnected, existing in different times, different places. The Twilight Sea, as the story goes, is no sea at all, but the sky of another world. That’s why you can’t see where the sea ends and the sky begins. They’re one and the same.”

Kairi looked up at the stars above, so much like the night sky on the Destiny Islands. One sky.

“That’s a beautiful story,” she said.

“Yes,” Aurora said. “And who knows? Maybe there are people a thousand worlds away looking up at that same sky, wondering the same thing. In that way, we never really lose each other. Even if we forget, or if we think we’re alone, the sky connects us no matter how far into darkness we wander.”

There was a knock on the door and Philip poked his head in. “Aurora, come join the festivities. This is a night to celebrate.”

Aurora smiled. “Of course. Let’s go, then?”

Kairi nodded. “Let’s.”

* * *

 

The waves were cold between her toes, but in the heat of summer the chill was refreshing. Billions of tiny lights lapped at the shore and stretched forever, it seemed, until it was impossible to tell where the sea ended and the sky began. Looking it now, Kairi could believe Aurora’s tale as though she’d known it all along. The bottle she held in her hand was stopped tight, the letter inside carefully folded.

_“Thinking of you wherever you are.  
We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend...”_

“This time, I’ll protect you,” Kairi said.

The seascape offered no answer but the ceaseless beat of waves against the sand, but the silence didn’t bother her. Kneeling, she placed the bottle among the sea foam and watched it drift away with the sea and its watery stars toward the infinite horizon beyond where the eye could see.

“Message in a bottle? Not the most reliable form of communication,” Lightning said, drawing up to Kairi.

“He’ll get it. Somehow, someday, it’ll reach him.”

“You sound certain.”

Kairi filled her lungs with the scent of night and stars and the magic here that could transcend the ages and spaces between here and there.

_“One sky, one destiny.”_

_Meet me there._

“I am.”

“So, ready to track down the next princess and her psycho alter-ego?”

Kairi pulled her shoes on and stifled a laugh. “We don’t know that all of them are in the same situation as Aurora and Alice. Maybe everyone else is just fine.”

“They’re not.”

“You sound certain,” Kairi said, mimicking Lightning’s earlier deadpan.

“I am. That thing the fairies said about bright lights casting the darkest shadows—it’s a warning we better heed. I had few problems finding Merlin, but ever since I started travelling with you, it’s like we’re a moving target for the Heartless and Nobodies.”

Kairi stood up and gave Lightning her full attention. “I noticed that, too.”

“And these other princesses are like you, honey attracting flies. Whatever we find in the next world, you have to be ready for another fight to the death. Think you can handle it, kid?”

They averted their eyes to the seascape once more, the lull of the ocean calming, but not because the storm was over. It was just beginning.

“Yeah, we can.”

“You sound certain.”

Kairi waved her hand and performed the spell to summon a corridor of light over the water. She stepped forward, Lightning right behind her.

“I am.”

Lightning hid a smirk and they stepped into the portal, looking ahead to the next world’s dawn.

* * *

 

In a white room devoid of light, Luxord saw stars.

“I realize we don’t have hearts to guide us, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t the way to treat a beloved comrade.”

Saïx glared up at the insufferable man wriggling in his chokehold. There was no moon and no stars visible from inside this place, but that celestial maiden’s call penetrated the walls of the complex and sang to his blood. Just _give in_ , it whispered. Saïx wanted nothing more, but the consequences of killing Luxord could be more of a bane than a blessing. It didn’t mean he couldn’t make the man bleed a bit. Even a Nobody could detect such basic, animal feelings.

“You’re an incompetent prick. That’s two Princess Nobodies you’ve squandered. Xemnas didn’t put so much effort into cultivating them for you to see them dismantled like paper dolls.”

Luxord wheezed, but he still had that stupid grin on his face. “Paper doll is an appropriate way to think of them, I’ll give you that one.”

Saïx growled and threw Luxord clean across the room, where he slammed into the far wall with a grunt. “I knew it was a bad idea to let you meddle. Your games are interfering with the Organization’s goals for Sora and the Princesses of Heart.”

Luxord coughed and pulled himself up, a hand out in a placating gesture as though he were truly at Saïx’s mercy. More games. There was something about Luxord that Saïx despised with an irrational intensity, like a tick or other blood-sucking vermin devoid of any purpose but to pester and annoy and infect with disease.

“All _right_ , geez. You’re such a poor sport, Saïx. Besides, if I remember correctly, our priority is keeping the Princesses alive and separated. I’m hurt that you’d accuse me of jeopardizing the Organization—”

“Don’t twist my words. You know _exactly_ what you’re doing messing around with the seventh Princess. It’s a waste of time and energy. If she dies—”

“She won’t,” Luxord said. “You know, it’s pretty _hard_ to kill an extreme being. Light or dark, it doesn’t matter. I mean, look at Xehanort. Now _that_ is one exquisite house of mirrors if I ever saw one.”

“I’m not here to converse with you. Stop risking the Organization with your puerile tactics or the next hand you draw will be the Dead Man’s.”

Saïx turned to leave, and Luxord’s amusement faded.

“Why not have a go yourself, then? If you think you can do better.”

Saïx paused in the doorway. “If you mean cleaning up your messes before you have a chance to create them, then worry not. I’m already handling it.”

Saïx left before Luxord could say anything further. He tried to ignore the man’s whooping laughter that followed him out, as though blotting it out would distract him from the fact that he’d been suckered into this game long ago.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next stop: Agrabah!


End file.
